Back to Business: How East London baker Lily Vanilli changed direction to cope with covid October 16, 2020 Who are you and what do you do? I’m Lily Jones from Lily Vanilli, a baker and cake decorator based in East London. I have a weekend cafe on Columbia Road and make creative cakes and pastries to order for home delivery, weddings and events, as well as consulting for other brands and businesses. How [...]
St Patrick’s Day celebrations in London move online February 11, 2021 London mayor Sadiq Khan said today a virtual St Patrick’s Day celebration will be held on 17 March, which will showcase London-based Irish talent. The celebration will be hosted by London Irish Centre ambassador Angela Scanlon. “The sight of Londoners and visitors of all backgrounds uniting in our capital for St Patrick’s day is a [...]
British Land appoints new chief financial officer from Tesco January 19, 2021 London-based retail landlord British Land has made Bhavesh Mistry its new chief financial officer. Mistry is expected to join British Land no later than 1 August 2021. Until he joins David Walker will continue in his role as interim CFO. The incoming CFO is currently deputy chief financial officer at Tesco, a position has had [...]
New: Mayor calls on Westminster to reconsider pavement charging plan October 23, 2020 The Mayor of London has called on Westminster City Council to reconsider “short-sighted” plans to charge hospitality businesses thousands of pounds in fees to continue trading outside. The Council is set to charge businesses £7 per square metre of outside space, per day, once the existing ‘al fresco’ scheme comes to an end on October [...]
HMRC’s fraud hotline inundated with 91,000 calls in first nine months of pandemic May 6, 2021 HMRC’s fraud hotline received more than 91,000 calls during the first nine months of the pandemic, with concerns about furlough fraud likely to be behind many of the calls. On average 10,000 calls per month were made to HMRC’s hotline from April to December 2020, according to HMRC figures, an increase of around 1,000 calls [...]
Back to Business: Merlin Labron-Johnson on how Covid could change hospitality for the better August 22, 2020 We talk to London’s top chefs about how they are dealing with the strange ‘new normal’. This week Merlin Labron-Johnson, chef-founder of Osip, speaks about the silver linings he found during lockdown. Who are you and what do you do? I’m Merlin Labron-Johnson and I’m the chef-owner of a little restaurant called Osip in Bruton, [...]
UK set for ‘summer of fun’ as FA Cup final to have 20,000 spectators March 14, 2021 The UK is set for a “summer of fun” with 20,000 spectators set to kick it off at the FA Cup final on 15 May, according to the government. Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has announced Wembley will open its doors to 20,000 fans at the match two days before pubs and restaurants are allowed open [...]
What Nutshell’s Mohammad Paknejad has learned from Covid October 31, 2020 Who are you and what do you do? I am Mohammad Paknejad, director of Nutshell, a modern Iranian Restaurant in Covent Garden. My wife, Marwa Alkhalaf and I have been operating the restaurant since we opened last July. How are things? The last six months have changed a lot at Nutshell. It’s our first restaurant, [...]
Pantechnicon: The perfect place to avoid Tier 2 restrictions October 28, 2020 It has been some time since City A.M. put together a Working Lunch column, because the very idea of a working lunch has for much of this year seemed like a quaint artefact of the distant past, like promenading down a pier or engaging in courtly gossip with the King’s favourites. But thanks to a [...]
Online share of grocery sales hits record level during third lockdown March 1, 2021 The third national lockdown pushed the share of online grocery sales to a record high in January, double the level the previous month. The pandemic has accelerated the shift to online shopping with Britain’s big four supermarkets expanding their capacity during the crisis. The online share of grocery sales hit 16 per cent in January, [...]