Natoora’s Franco Fubini on why he prefers Italy’s food to its labour laws June 28, 2015 It is a promising time for Britain’s premium food sector. Last year, sales of organic food rose by 4 per cent to £1.86bn and specialised suppliers have been looking to capitalise on a disenchantment with supermarkets. Franco Fubini is one of them. “I was in the fresh produce section of a chain of delicatessens [...]
Turning around Tower Hamlets: How John Biggs can transform the reputation of the rotten borough June 12, 2015 The voters of Tower Hamlets have been to the polls, and with Labour’s John Biggs elected as the new mayor, there might finally come the opportunity to turn the reputation of this beleaguered borough around. Lutfur Rahman was elected mayor of Tower Hamlets in 2010, during his tenure his detractors have accused him of [...]
Best of the rest: other useful dining apps for hungry Londoners April 22, 2015 Bookatable Bookatable not only finds the best restaurants around, it also finds the best deals. With a range of offers at great restaurants, it’s a useful, cheapskate’s way of eating in some of London’s best restaurants. Free iPhone/Android Urbanspoon Perfect for when you’ve just arrived in a new city, Urbanspoon organises restaurants by distance, cuisine [...]
The space age: Condeco’s Paul Statham talks trickle-down economics, expansion plans and why being a business leader feels so good August 2, 2015 Back in the early 1980s, the Statham family started an electronic security business in their garage. “We grew it into a fairly formidable company; we had 200 people working for us,” says Paul Statham, son, and now founder and chief executive of Condeco Software. The family sold Masco Security in 1999, in a multi-million pound [...]
What entrepreneurs can learn from sport – Investec Comment July 5, 2015 It's as true in sport as it is in business: everything you do has a risk attached. I’m a rower and have been training for the past two years to compete at the Paralympic Games in Rio next year, but there was nothing inevitable about me getting to this stage in my career. Before [...]
Green & Black’s founder Craig Sams on his plans to get us drinking real kola beans with Gusto Cola July 26, 2015 Back in the 1980s few people even knew that cocoa came from a pod grown on a tree. Absurd though that sounds, even supermarket buyers were unaware of cocoa’s provenance. As an experiment, Craig Sams, a legend in the macrobiotic diet community and founder of organic food company Whole Earth, decided to have some [...]
Food deliveries roll out at Uber and Burger King February 19, 2015 CONTROVERSIAL ride hire firm Uber yesterday launched its latest experiment in delivering more than just people with UberEATS in Barcelona. UberEATS works with local restaurants in the Spanish city to put together a daily selection of meals that can be ordered to arrive in under 10 minutes. Meanwhile, US fast food chain Burger King has [...]
Restaurant review: Is £38 the dearest burger in London? Sackville’s serves up x-rated food porn July 29, 2015 This week I ate a burger that cost £38. It was at new truffle-themed restaurant Sackville’s in Mayfair, and while it wasn’t the most expensive burger I’ve ever eaten – that dubious honour goes to Miami’s Bâoli which charged me $95 (£60) – it’s the most expensive I’ve had in this great city of ours. [...]
Photobox boss Stan Laurent: The man driving Moonpig’s growth story September 14, 2014 By the end of April, it became clear to Stan Laurent that London’s doors were effectively closed to new consumer-facing internet companies. There had just been the perfect storm of disastrous market debuts from Just Eat and AO World, along with two profit warnings from Asos that triggered a sell-off in shares of fellow fashion [...]
Making a splash: Orlebar Brown founder talks bagginess, Stateside growth and being laughed at August 9, 2015 Spending two years building a business on your tod can’t be easy. But for Adam Brown, founder of swimwear and fashion brand Orlebar Brown, it turned out pretty well. Back in 2007, Brown decided to set up the company. The story of how, while at a friend’s birthday pool party in Rajasthan, which was [...]