Where to celebrate Burns Night in London: Bars and restaurants serving haggis and drams January 13, 2023 Burns Night, the birthday of the great Scottish bard Robert Burns is one of the highlights of the London restaurant scene, with venues across the capital laying on special spreads and keeping the city’s bagpipe community in work. Expect a lots of readings of the tongue-twisting Address to a Haggis as well as the consumption [...]
The Gym Group: Brits ditch the pennies and the £s as more fitness fanatics seek cheaper gym membership January 12, 2023 The Gym Group today said it has continued to win over customers in the face of the UK’s cost-of-living crisis as Brits flocked to the low-cost gym in seeking out better “value for money”. The low-cost gym owner said it had increased its membership numbers by 14.3 per cent over the past year, to 821,000, [...]
London holding off UK recession but businesses sweat over inflation January 12, 2023 London appears to be withstanding the UK’s wider economic decline, with businesses hiring at a record pace and expecting their finances to fatten up over the coming year, a new survey out today reveals. The capital’s jobs market is running at red hot levels, according to the London Chambers of Commerce and Industry’s (LCCI) latest [...]
Bain & Co snaps up London tech consultancy Enterprise Blueprints January 12, 2023 Bain & Co has acquired London consultancy Enterprise Blueprints as pushes forwards with efforts to bolster its tech advice offerings, Morning Wire can exclusively reveal. The Boston consultancy’s deal for an undisclosed sum comes as the world’s top professional firms have sought to profit on the global push to digitalise the economy by selling advice [...]
London AI startup InstaDeep bought by BionTech in half-a-billion deal January 11, 2023 London based AI startup InstaDeep has been bought out by biotechnology giant BioNTech in a half-a-billion pound deal. InstaDeep focuses on machine learning and artificial intelligence, and has raised nearly £100m across four seed rounds. The deal will allow BioNTech to use InstaDeep’s machine learning to “improve its drug discovery process, including developing personalised treatments tailored [...]
JD Sports expects pre-tax profits to top £1bn following Christmas surge January 11, 2023 JD Sports expects to post pre-tax profits of more than £1bn for the year ending on 3 February 2023 after it recorded a Christmas sales surge. The sportswear retailer said a strong performance in the second half of 2022, driven by a surge in sales over Christmas, will see it achieve its financial goals. The [...]
Inheritance tax: London property nets HMRC £820,000 in death duties on average, double other regions’ intake January 9, 2023 Property makes up half the wealth of estates in London paying inheritance tax (IHT) – around twice as much as most other regions, according to a retirement specialist. An HMRC Freedom of Information (FOI) request from retirement specialist Just Group revealed that in 2019-20, the latest financial year of available data, property accounted for 50 per cent [...]
How the Chinese New Year and covid rule changes could give a tourism boost to London’s West End January 6, 2023 London’s West End is looking forward to the return of Chinese tourists this month, after the easing of the nation’s zero-Covid policy – ahead of the Chinese New Year. China has seen a surge in Covid infections in recent months, with EU countries introducing testing requirements for travellers. Travel from and to China will be [...]
Odeon sees Christmas boom as Avatar 2 lures Brits back to the big screen January 5, 2023 Odeon, the UK’s largest cinema chain, welcomed over a million viewers during Christmas thanks to the much anticipated Avatar sequel. Cinemas in the UK have started 2023 on a high note after two rough years, according to new numbers released by Odeon. The return of viewers to the big screen was credited to the release [...]
What we’ll be eating in 2023: A guide to top new food trends, from seaweed to set menus January 5, 2023 London is one of the dining capitals of the world, representing every corner of global cuisine and sending ripples across the world with its food trends. We asked some top chefs what they think will be the big food trends of 2023, with answers ranging from lots more seaweed to a resurgence of “proper” Neopolitan [...]