Uber’s former rival Didi launches car rental service August 22, 2016 Not satisfied with winning the ride-sharing wars with Uber after merging in China, Didi is now expanding into other car services. It's launching an online car rental service in the country to capitalise on the billions of domestic tourist trips made throughout the country, which is expected to grow to 5.8bn by 2020. Read more: Uber [...]
The Snaffling Pig co-founders talk GoPros, Dragons’ Den, jail and setting up a business with £500 August 15, 2016 This is the difference between pork scratchings and pork crackling: scratchings are cooked at one temperature, which is why they can be perilously hard. Crackling has two meanings: it’s the stuff on top of belly of pork; it’s also pieces of skin and fat cooked at a lower temperature with a short burst of more heat [...]
Three at 3: The three stories you need to read right now August 25, 2016 We’ve put together the best three stories of the day in bite-size form, to make your life that bit easier. Time for a coffee break? Check out our three at three. #NationalBurgerDay If you’ve had enough of eating mediocre burgers, don’t fret – here’s a list of London’s best. From dirty to honest and everything [...]
Yule be sorry! Tips to avoid a Christmas office party disaster November 4, 2016 Have you been bestowed with the honour of arranging the office Christmas party this year? Lucky you. Organised well, your success will elevate you to office hero. Done badly, you may return in the new year to a desk relocation, perhaps next to the toilet, or microwave. To avoid giving your office a party to remember [...]
The Greasy Strangler review: a gross-out B-movie that will turn even the strongest stomach October 7, 2016 The Greasy Strangler is gross, but also kind of compelling, like picking a giant scab and rummaging around in the wound with your fingernail. It’s a carnival of the grotesque, wilfully offensive, trying every trick in the book – and some it came up with itself – to turn your stomach. As the title suggests, [...]
Supermarket wars: Sainsbury’s move to eat rivals’ lunches could turn sour September 28, 2016 British supermarket giant Sainsbury’s recently changed the terms of its lunchtime meal deal offering – much to the dismay of many customers. It decided to remove its more expensive “taste the difference” sandwiches from the deal, and has rebranded the lunchtime option to “on the go”. The move was met with bewilderment on social media [...]
Mondelez International takes out sweet £1m insurance policy for one of its chocolate tasting-scientists September 6, 2016 Mondelez International has taken niche insurance to a whole new level after it insured the taste buds of one of its chocolate scientists for £1m with Lloyd's of London. Hayleigh Curtis works as part of Cadbury's innovation team at Mondelez's Global Centre of Chocolate Excellence, based in Bournville, the birthplace of Cadbury chocolate. The specialist chocolate team [...]
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, [...]
Here’s how much of your pay goes on commuting September 12, 2016 Thought you were angry about your commute already? Brace yourself… Cancellations and delays, leaves on the track or too much heat, the increasing cost of tickets and jam-packed sardine tin-like trains – there's already such an array of choice when it comes to commuting complaints. Here's another one to add to the list. A tenth of your [...]
Buy-to-lose? With new restrictions on buy-to-let mortgages and the introduction of other punitive measures in 2017, is there any value left in letting for mortgaged landlords? January 11, 2017 As we enter 2017, the tide has truly turned against Britain’s buy-to-let landlords. First, George Osborne discouraged people from buying a second residential property by imposing extra stamp duty of 3 per cent. Now, the Bank of England is demanding that mortgage lenders “stress test” loans to landlords. Since 1 January, the Bank’s Prudential Regulation [...]