Beer of the realm: Cobra founder Lord Bilimoria talks creativity, GM crops and cracking pubs August 31, 2014 If you haven’t enjoyed a Cobra beer yourself, you’ve probably had a curry with someone who has. Karan Bilimoria founded Cobra Beer in 1989. It’s a well-documented story by now: the entrepreneur and life peer saw the need for a beer that was less gassy than lager but not as heavy as ale. Cobra claims [...]
London is the world’s third most expensive city for dating April 22, 2015 Anyone who is fed up of paying through the nose for a date in London's expensive bars and restaurants will be envious of cities such as Mumbai where a cheap date typically costs just $24.70 (£16.53), according to new research. That's about the same as an adult zones 1-6 day travel card, a ticket for Vue [...]
Adnams toasts to hopping good year after record beers sales March 25, 2015 ADNAMS sold a record number of pints last year thanks to Britain’s love affair with craft beer and the company selling its products to a bigger range of pubs. The Suffolk brewer, which also has more than 50 pubs, 12 shops and three hotels dotted around East Anglia, said operating profits rose 14.7 per cent [...]
More pubs than ever are picking BT Sport over rival Sky Sports August 17, 2014 More pubs now subscribe to BT Sport than Sky Sports, according to the former state monopoly, as its £2bn investment in building a sports TV empire continues. In May, BT said more than 19,000 pubs, clubs and commercial properties had signed up for its sports service, putting BT neck-and-neck with Sky Sports, BT’s consumer division [...]
Budget 2015: Boozers set for a boost with cuts to beer, cider and Scotch duties March 18, 2015 Britain’s publicans raised a toast after further cuts to alcohol duties were announced in the 2015 Budget. With 1p off a pint and two per cent off cider duty, it marks the third year in a row duties have been cut. However, Britain’s budding wine growers will be disappointed as their duty was frozen. Ernst [...]
Independent shops are bringing some much-needed cool to London’s housing schemes June 11, 2015 There was a time when retailers were an afterthought to housing developers. But increasingly sophisticated homeowners, used to an urban village life among coffee shops and boutiques, are demanding more. “Ideally, you want to bring the commercial side in as soon as you can,” says John Anderson, chairman of developer Berkeley Homes, East Thames. [...]
CBI factory figures to show rebound during strong April – London Report April 26, 2015 THE CONFEDERATION of British Industry (CBI) is expected to release relatively healthy factory activity data today. The CBI’s total orders balance is predicted to have rebounded in April, after dipping to a five-month low of zero per cent in March, as a result of a substantial drop in export orders. Separate manufacturing data from purchasing [...]
July Budget 2015: Liberalised shopping on Sundays will deliver big benefits to the consumer July 7, 2015 The liberalisation of Sunday trading hours, expected to be announced in the Budget today, is a timely response to the way in which Sundays have changed in the 21 years since shopping hours were last reformed in 1994. Sundays remain a day of leisure for most of us, and our leisure time is enriched by [...]
Two more bad arguments for why Britain needs a mandatory living wage July 6, 2015 With £12bn of working age welfare cuts expected in this Budget, Conservative voices are clamouring for the “living wage” to be used as a means of reducing in-work poverty. In the past week, two celebrity former advisers to the Prime Minister, Steve Hilton and Rohan Silva, have argued the government should boost the national minimum [...]
SABMiller just snapped up London-based craft brewer Meantime May 15, 2015 Hipsterism just got even more mainstream after the world's second largest brewer SABMiller snapped up Greenwich-based craft brewer Meantime. The acquisition fits into SABMiller's drive to meet the growing demand for beer “outside its traditional role as the favourite drink for men in pubs and bars”. Founded in 1999, before most hipsters had grown their first curly moustache, the [...]