The new topless Range Rover Evoque is a glorious blown-up Barbie car and we kind of love it October 4, 2016 As controversial as the EU referendum, the world’s foremost luxury 4×4 maker has lopped the top off its compact model in a bid to create a new lifestyle niche; the Cabrio SUV. To some, this is the best of all words. To others, it is a motorised selfie stick. Soft-top off-roaders aren’t a new concept. [...]
Shot in the Arm for the City as £24bn mega-deal is agreed July 19, 2016 British tech giant Arm Holdings yesterday agreed to a £24.3bn takeover by telecoms group Softbank, in a move that would go down as the second largest outbound Japanese deal on record. Softbank has pounced for the Cambridge-based chip-maker following a sharp drop in the value of the pound, largely prompted by last month’s vote to leave [...]
BT has been ordered to pay an £8,000 fine for dangerous roadworks June 28, 2016 British Telecom (BT) has been told it must pay more than £8,000 for "dangerous and disruptive roadworks", in its 37th prosecution since 2010. Transport for London prospected BT for the poorly managed roadworks, leading BT to appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 22 June. The BT offences, which took place on the Transport for London Road [...]
How one buccaneering family dominated the UK scampi market October 20, 2016 "At the tender age of 32, I got involved in buying assets from the receivership of what was the Whitby Shellfish Company”, says Graham Whittle, founder of Whitby Seafoods. From relatively humble beginnings, in just over thirty years, the business has gone from one that was sinking to the biggest producer of scampi in the UK, [...]
Branding and buyouts: Brand Union’s Toby Southgate on corporate takeovers, Tesco’s farms and Tesla’s higher purpose August 1, 2016 Perceptions of brands change over time,” says Toby Southgate, worldwide chief executive of Brand Union. “And building them takes a long time. It’s not about the final push over the line.” A consultative arm of WPP, Brand Union specialises in brand strategy, and has shaped the identity of some of the world’s biggest names, including Vodafone, Absolut [...]
Horse racing betting: Turret out to Rock bookies at monster 40/1 in the Oaks August 17, 2016 Aidan O’Brien has won three of the last 10 runnings of the Darley Yorkshire Oaks (3.40pm) – and a strong hand of entries suggests he’s keen on landing the prize again today. The Irish trainer has four entered in the Group One race, with Found, Seventh Heaven, Pretty Perfect and Even Song making up a [...]
Former BHS owner Dominic Chappell “preparing bid” for BHS – but insiders think he’s “living in cloud cuckoo-land” April 27, 2016 The former owner of BHS, Dominic Chappell, is close to making a bid for the iconic retailer that entered administration on Monday – but sources have already dismissed him as "living in cloud cuckoo-land". Chappell, who is facing pressure under claims he took £1.5m out of the firm and moved into another company called BHS [...]
Crowdcube is eyeing a massive new round of investment via crowdfunding July 4, 2016 Crowdcube is defying the Brexit jitters raising its own new round of funding via, where else, but its own round of crowdfunding. One of the early pioneers of the equity crowdfunding concept, the site has revealed ambitious new plans to raise more than £5m from investors. “In just five short years we have firmly established our position as [...]
It’s pure hubris for politicians to think they can “rebalance” the economy September 8, 2016 Theresa May is reviving the idea of interventionist industrial strategy, and wants to “rebalance” the economy. Many people are jumping on the bandwagon. They should jump right off again. Even the more mature of today’s politicians were still in the school playground when these ideas last made waves. In the 1950s and 1960s, UK governments [...]
London generates over a quarter of the UK’s so-called economy taxes, and that could be a problem post-Brexit July 7, 2016 London is stumping up a substantial amount of the UK's taxes, and that could create issues for the country after Brexit, a report out today has found. According to the figures from the Centre for Cities, in 2014-15, London shelled out 28.6 per cent of the UK's economy taxes, which the think tank defines as those [...]