Football betting: Manchester City to test Leicester’s fairytale title bid February 4, 2016 It is not a surprise to see Manchester City involved in potentially title-deciding six-pointers at this stage of the season. However, it is positively shocking for one of those contests to come against Leicester. The Foxes have been the standout story of the campaign. After beating Liverpool 2-0 on Tuesday, Claudio Ranieri’s side lead the Premier [...]
Valentine’s Day 2015: South West Trains just won Valentine’s Day with When Harry Met Salisbury, Waterlove and Breakfast at Twickenham departure boards February 14, 2015 A train company just got something right for once. It’s not often they can be given credit for getting something right, but on Valentine’s Day, South West Trains have done it and even revealed a romantic side. We thought Tesco was doing it well, but the folks over at South West Trains, usually embattled by [...]
Godiva is galloping into growth markets: Chief executive Mohamed Elsarky talks managing growth and high quality March 7, 2016 As Godiva celebrates its 90th anniversary, few would contest the heritage of the Belgian chocolatier. But since Turkish food manufacturer Yildiz Holding acquired the firm from Campbell Soup in 2007, it has been given a new lease of life. Now, chief executive Mohamed Elsarky has his sights on Asia. Since entering the Chinese market in late 2009, nearly 70 stores [...]
Cleaners turn cupid for singles on Valentine’s day. How Handy! February 8, 2015 Valentine’s day is not a lot of fun for many time-poor singletons, but the helpful types at Handy, the app that lets you hire cleaners and DIY help, are turning cleaners into cupid – and all for charity. The Book Bus, a charity that helps poor children to read, has teamed up with the app [...]
#HeartsOfLondon Mapped: These loved-up cycle racks are popping up all over London February 9, 2015 Either love is in the air for London's cyclists, or someone's just feeling a bit moony about bike security. Some 14 bright red love heart-shaped bike racks have popped up at locations across the capital in the spots where the ordinary black hoop-style ones usually are. The hearts – which have turned up just in [...]
Married couples are the UK’s happiest people – but money worries put strain on relationships February 12, 2015 With Valentine's Day just around the corner, it's fitting that new figures published today show 84.4 per cent of those in married or civil partnerships said they were "happy" in 2014. When asked to rank life satisfaction out of 10, 32 per cent of married people gave an answer of nine or 10. This compares with 26 [...]
Pound edges towards a seven-year high against the euro February 10, 2015 The pound rose as much as 0.5 per cent against the euro this morning, pushing it close to its highest since 2008. One euro now costs close to 74.1p, near the 74.3p it cost on Valentine's Day 2008. The rise followed encouraging data from the UK's manufacturing industry. Official data published this morning showed manufacturing [...]
Odeon is selling one Fifty Shades of Grey ticket every seven seconds – and it’s preparing for a feeding frenzy in the film’s opening weekend February 9, 2015 Much-mocked it may be, but it seems cinema audiences are taking the new cringe fest Fifty Shades of Grey movie, which opens this weekend, pretty seriously. So seriously, in fact, cinema chain Odeon is selling one ticket to the movie every seven seconds. If it keeps selling tickets at this rate, Fifty Shades will beat Skyfall and the [...]
Elon Musk was on the verge of selling Tesla to Google for $11bn and even “shook” on a deal with Larry Page April 20, 2015 The millionaire magnate behind the world's best-known electric carmaker was on the verge of selling his company to Google as it failed to turn a profit. Elon Musk's Tesla was about to fall into bankruptcy and the founder had begun negotiating with Google on a deal for the firm, according to a new book on [...]
UK retail sales climbed in January, according to data from the British Retail Consortium and KPMG February 9, 2016 British retailers enjoyed some therapy last month as shoppers cast off the January blues and returned to the high street, according to new figures out today. UK retail sales rose by 2.6 per cent on a like-for-like basis from January 2015, when they had increased 0.2 per cent from the preceding year, according to figures from the [...]