All smiles on the Teardrop isle August 4, 2013 British Airways’ new Colombo route will help open Sri Lanka up to a new generation of tourists, says Lisa Young EARLIER this year British Airways’ only Sri Lankan Boeing 777 pilot landed one of the company’s jets in his home country for the first time in 15 years. Touching down in Colombo, the capital of [...]
Mama buys Hoxton Bar & Kitchen for £1.9m March 20, 2013 MAMA Group, the music venue owner which was sold by HMV to private equity firm LDC in December, has snapped up East London’s Hoxton Bar & Kitchen for £1.9m. Its parent company Barworks confirmed yesterday it has sold the restaurant, bar and live music venue to Mama, which owns the Jazz Cafe and Barfly in [...]
La Casa Negra Shoreditch restaurant review: achingly hip Mexican food with added attitude July 17, 2013 Street food. That’s a thing. Street food! Isn’t it great? It reminds me of that time I was travelling in Guatemala, and some indigenous people were just, you know, making food in the street, and it was all, like, totally authentic. Except that never happened. I’ve forced down slimy noodles in Tokyo; binned inedible grey [...]
Permira nets a €250m Norwegian fish vaccine deal April 5, 2013 PERMIRA, the London-based owner of Birds Eye Fish Fingers, has snapped up Norwegian fish vaccine maker Pharmaq for €250m (£210.9m). Permira will buy the 28-year-old company, which makes aquatic vaccines for fisheries in Norway, Chile and the UK, from Nordic fund managers Orkla and Kverva, who acquired a majority stake in the firm in 2008. [...]
Byron Hamburgers under the hammer for upwards of £100m February 10, 2013 BYRON, the upmarket hamburger chain dotted around London’s square mile, is being touted to would-be buyers with a price tag of between £100m and £120m, after the chain boomed to healthy adjusted profits over the last six months. The outfit, which is part of a stable of restaurants including PizzaExpress, Ask Italian and Soho institution [...]
Gordon Ramsay back on form as his empire returns to profit January 27, 2013 GORDON RAMSAY has turned his restaurant empire around after a turbulent few years, including a costly feud with his father-in-law, to report a return to profitability. Kavalake — which includes restaurants such as the Savoy Grill and Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s – delivered pre-tax profits of £2m in the year to August 2012 after suffering [...]
Symphony hits the right notes February 25, 2013 EMERGING market money manager Symphony International, which taps into Asia’s growing consumer spending, yesterday said it boosted fund value by almost 12 per cent last quarter due to surging revenues from its companies. Symphony, based in Hong Kong, invests in a vast array of consumer staples across Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, including hotels and [...]
McDonald’s to create 2,500 UK jobs as it reveals rise in sales January 23, 2013 MCDONALD’S announced plans yesterday to create 2,500 jobs at its restaurants this year, taking its UK workforce to 93,500. The world’s biggest restaurant group said the move builds on the 3,500 jobs created in 2012, of which 70 per cent were taken by young people under the age of 21. Business secretary Vince Cable, who [...]
Fishmongers’ company buys Tower Vaults February 4, 2013 THE FISHMONGERS’ Company, one of the City of London’s ancient livery companies, has bought the long leasehold interest in Tower Vaults for just over £12.5m. The 46,500 square foot site next to the Tower of London, has 12 shops and restaurants including Costa Coffee and McDonalds. Cluttons acted on the sale to the 700-year-old guild.
A cynic’s solution to not loving Valentine’s day February 12, 2013 City A.M.’s cocktail expert Call ME a cynic, but there is only one thing worse than being single on Valentine’s Day and that is being forced to sit with your significant other in a bar or restaurant, spending hand over fist in a vain attempt to quantify your affections. And every year the expectations for [...]