Office Depot owner loses over £50m ahead of quitting UK thanks to working from home trend October 2, 2024 OT Group, the owner of Office Depot and the Spicers wholesale brand, lost more than £50m in the year before it revealed plans to quit the UK. The Greater Manchester-headquartered group has posted a pre-tax loss of £52.5m for 2023, having also lost £15.8m in 2022. Newly-filed accounts with Companies House also reveal that turnover [...]
Bumper pay day for ‘Chicken King’ Boparan October 2, 2024 Ranjit Singh Boparan, the so-called ‘Chicken King’, received a bumper pay day after profit at his private office jumped to almost £125m. Boparan’s private office includes high street restaurant brands like Carluccio’s and Gourmet Burger Kitchen as well as Bernard Matthews, Banham Poultry and Elkes Biscuits. Newly-filed accounts with Companies House have revealed that the [...]
Bentley Continental GT Speed 2024 review: Need for speed October 1, 2024 The Continental GT changed everything for Bentley. In 2002, the craftspeople in Crewe – many of whom still referred to their workplace as ‘Royce’s’ ‒ hand-built just over 1,200 cars. But when the svelte new W12-powered coupe was unveiled in early 2003, dealers were inundated with 6,500 advance orders. Almost overnight, Bentley had gone from [...]
Leon: Restaurant chain’s loss-making streak continues amid Asda takeover September 30, 2024 Restaurant chain Leon lost almost £20m in the year it was sold by the billionaire Issa brothers to Asda, it has been revealed. The company had been purchased by the brothers’ Lancashire-based EG Group in 2021 before most of the group’s UK operations were sold to the supermarket giant for £2bn in October 2023. At [...]
Home REIT sells off another £36.9m of property in wind-down scramble September 30, 2024 Scandal-hit social housing investor Home REIT said it had offloaded another £36.9m worth of property today as it scrambles to clear its debts before winding down. In a statement to the markets, the former FTSE 250 firm said it had sold 200 houses at a series of public auctions last week as part of efforts [...]
Bravissimo: Founder sells up ahead of 30th anniversary September 27, 2024 Lingerie retailer Bravissimo, which was set up by entrepreneur Sarah Tremellen almost 30 years ago, has been sold to a Japanese giant. The Warwickshire-headquartered company has been snapped up by Wacoal’s European division, which is based in Northamptonshire, for an undisclosed sum. Tremellen has owned Bravissimo with her husband Mike since she founded the firm [...]
Prime property in London ticks down amid Starmer ‘plans to penalise wealth’ September 25, 2024 Demand for prime property ticked down in the third quarter of the year as buyers returned to ‘wait-and-see’ mode ahead of the Autumn budget. The prime property market has been up and down this year; buyers held back ahead of the July election but returned to the market over summer. Now they nervously await potential [...]
Billionaire Dunelm founder’s son sells millions of shares in FTSE 250 homewares giant September 24, 2024 The son of the billionaire founder of Dunelm has sold millions of shares in the homewares retailer after the FTSE 250 company reported a rise in its sales and profit for its latest financial year. Sir Will Adderley, the son of Sir Bill Adderley, has lowered his stake in the Leicester-headquartered business from 32.3 per [...]
Historic Magna Carta house hits market for £4.5m September 23, 2024 The Victorian listed home where King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215 is on the market for £4.5m
Ed Warner: Seb Coe, Gary Glitter and the most powerful job in sport September 19, 2024 Seb Coe, newly confirmed as one of seven candidates for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is regarded as a serial vote winner. It wasn’t always thus. Witness his single term in office as the MP for Falmouth and Camborne in Cornwall, ousted by Candy Atherton as Labour swept to power in 1997. [...]