20 May 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal Around £3 billion worth of food will be wasted by the UK food service and hospitality sector this year.   Research by food waste prevention experts WRAP says this is £2.5 billion up from 2011.   The report, Quantification Of Food Surplus, Waste And Related Materials In The Grocery Supply Chain, funded mainly by Defra and Welsh Government, is the most comprehensive review of surplus food and food waste from UK food manufacturers and grocery retailers.   It says action to stop more perishable food waste could save businesses £300 million a year.   As a part of this, BaxterStorey is working with a UK supplier to help eradicate its wasted asparagus crop and continue the battle against food waste in the hospitality sector.   Watts Farm in Kent and Essex supplies supermarkets, food service providers, restaurants, and farmers’ markets with around 70 different fruit and vegetable products.   Last year, Watts Farm produced 36 tonnes of good asparagus, but 15 per cent of this did not meet the specification required and was graded as waste. Uneven asparagus is graded as class two or three, and much of this produce is used as compost.   Matt Hay, chef director at BaxterStorey, said: “Asparagus is an extremely versatile ingredient, celebrated by chefs throughout its short season. We have created a series of recipes to inspire our chef teams when using asparagus, proving it does not have to be class one to be delicious.”   The team will also take some of the farm’s asparagus trimmings, which are routinely wasted. These will be the basis of a range of fresh soups, stocks and sauces making this expensive seasonal ingredient more affordable for many businesses.   Hay added: “We hope offering an alternative to class one asparagus will help fight the war on food waste and encourage people to love all fruit and vegetables, no matter what their shape or size.” Source link

South West Water has appointed Nick Buckland as independent chair of its new Customer Challenge Group. The group was set up to assist and challenge the water firm during the three-year development of its 2020-25 business plan. SWW’s CCG chair Nick Buckland Buckland, who lives in Cornwall, is an experienced chair and non-executive director in the private, public and voluntary sectors, following a successful career in industry. He is chair of governors at University Technical College Plymouth, former chair of governors at Plymouth University and a member of the Devon and Cornwall Business Council. Speaking about his appointment, he said: “I’m delighted to be appointed to this important role and look forward to representing the interests of South West Water and Bournemouth Water customers.” South West Water managing director Stephen Bird said: “We are making good progress in the delivery of our current business plan, which received a gold star rating from Ofwat, the industry regulator. “We were particularly commended for the quality of our customer and stakeholder engagement. As we start to prepare a new business plan, we look forward to working with Nick and his fellow Customer Challenge Group members to ensure that the needs and wants of our customers continue to be at the core of our plans to 2025 and beyond.” The Customer Challenge Group will help to ensure that during the development of the new business plan, customer views and priorities are adequately addressed and activities and outcomes are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. Following the merger of Bournemouth Water with South West Water earlier this year, the new five-year business plan will cover both service areas. Source link

Not for the first time in his career, a problem of resources was preventing Masayoshi Son, the billionaire Japanese technology investor, from realising his ambitions. His company SoftBank had recently stretched its balance sheet to splash $32bn on UK chip designer Arm. But the serial dealmaker, who believes in his ability to see into the future, wanted more. So where would Mr Son find the big sums still needed to act on his latest vision of a world where humans, devices and the internet are more closely integrated? The answer arrived on 13 planes. They carried a 500-strong state delegation from Saudi Arabia to Tokyo last month. Leading it was the hard-charging reformist Prince Mohammed bin Salman al-Saud, known by his initials MBS. Luckily for Mr Son, the 31-year-old was a man in a hurry with his own programme — “Vision 2030”, targeting a radical modernisation of the Gulf country. Some six weeks later, the two men would meet in Riyadh to launch plans for the largest private fund of its sort ever created — a $100bn partnership that will allow Mr Son to invest in the future of technology and for Saudi Arabia potentially to reap the benefits. On paper now is a non-binding agreement for the creation of a SoftBank subsidiary based in London. Over the next five years, Saudi Arabia has committed up to $45bn, while SoftBank has promised at least $25bn. A further $30bn is being sought from “a few large global investors”. The initial reaction to the SoftBank Vision Fund has been a mixture of awe and scepticism. Awe since the scale is equal to all the money raised by US venture capital industry in the past 30 months. Scepticism because questions abound as to whether the parties are truly committed to funding and seeing through the unprecedented project. Even the insinuation of doubt, however, draws a rebuke from those closest to the plans. “What this isn’t is a couple of guys throwing money around,” says one of these people. Another adds: “This was a marriage of minds. The Saudis want to bring technology to their country and Masa [Mr Son] wants to be the largest technology player in the world.” The unlikely marriage led from a courtship during the state visit to Japan in early September. Mr Son had been considering innovative financing arrangements for months, given the scale of his ambitions and his frustration with public market investors, who he feels take too long to understand his big “crazy ideas”. When SoftBank decided to purchase the UK’s Arm, it was slowed by the need to liquidate parts of its holdings to fund the transaction, which also pushed the company’s net debt to a staggering $105bn. To solve the problem, Mr Son enlisted SoftBank executive Rajeev Misra, an ex-debt trader who in 2006 helped SoftBank structure a complicated takeover of Vodafone, Japan, to explore alternative pools of capital. Mr Misra, who will lead the new fund, asked two former colleagues from his time at Deutsche Bank — Nizar Al-Bassam and Dalinc Ariburnu — to field interest from potential partners. Senior Saudi officials were among those contacted by Mr Al-Bassam and Mr Ariburnu. In short order, a series of meetings with SoftBank were arranged during the Saudi delegation’s visit. Before seeing MBS, Mr Son honed his pitch with some of the royal court’s closest advisers: Yasir Alrumayyan, the secretary-general of the state Public Investment Fund (PIF); Khalid al-Falih, the influential energy minister and chairman of state oil company Saudi Aramco; and Majed Bin Abdullah Al Kassabi, the commerce and investment minister. Each pressed the SoftBank founder about the strategy and how it could fit in with their attempts to overhaul Saudi Arabia’s economy and reduce its reliance on oil. Masayoshi Son, left, hosts Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud at the Geihinkan state guesthouse in Tokyo © Qatar News Agency Not only did Mr Son respond with examples of how SoftBank could help with the transformation of the country, but the technology mogul also boasted about his investment record and his ability to pick winners including China’s ecommerce leader Alibaba, mobile gaming company Supercell and Yahoo Japan. After a courtesy visit with the Japanese emperor, meetings with the chairman of Hitachi and the heads of Japanese banks, it was time for MBS — an admirer of Japanese culture — to hear Mr Son’s presentation. Joined by his advisers, the deputy crown prince was hosted at the palatial Geihinkan state guesthouse in central Tokyo, which is designated as one of the country’s national treasures. The meeting was a resounding success, captured in a photo of MBS with a smiling Mr Son. “The plans really took on a life of its own after Masa and the deputy crown prince met … Masa really made an impact on him,” one person involved says. MBS left with a request for Mr Son to visit Saudi Arabia in October and spend time there better to understand the country. Saudi officials and advisers were dispatched to conduct due diligence confidentially on SoftBank and its portfolio companies, including the team behind its robotics division and robot Pepper. A Japanese official said Mr Son found a kindred spirit in MBS, who projects an image of youthful purpose in a kingdom that has grown accustomed to a slow pace of consensual rule. “MBS also thinks that the speed of decision-making is very important,” said the official. He added that Mr Son’s contact book among tech entrepreneurs would dovetail well with the financial firepower that Saudi Arabia wants to deploy in the coming years, despite economic challenges at home because of low oil prices. Yoshiki Hatanaka, a Middle East expert and adviser at International Development Centre of Japan, says: “In order for Saudi Arabia to attract investment in the future, it needed a flagship and eye-catching deal with someone who is a quick decision maker and internationally well-known. There are few in Japan other than SoftBank.” Last week, Mr Son arrived in Saudi Arabia to make good

Moorgarth Group, represented by international real estate advisor Savills, has brought to market Clumber Park Hotel & Spa in Nottinghamshire for a guide price of £7 million.    The 4-star hotel, which has recently been refurbished, features 73-bedrooms plus a courtyard restaurant, five meeting rooms, spa and swimming pool.  Located adjacent to the National Trust’s 3,800-acre (1,538-hectare) Clumber Park, it is also close to numerous other visitor attractions including Sherwood Forest, Rufford Park and Chatsworth House.   Tom Cunningham, hotels director at Savills, comments: “This highly profitable, luxury hotel combines a strong leisure and corporate trade with a successful spa and will therefore offer its new owners multiple income streams.  The UK’s regional hotel market continues to be buoyant and we are anticipating a swift result on behalf of our client.”   Source link

Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), represented by international real estate advisor Savills, has let 56 Long Acre in Covent Garden to Honey Birdette for its first UK boutique. The Australian luxury lingerie retailer has agreed a new lease for the 825 sq ft (77 sq m) prime retail property which is located close to the junction with James Street, adjacent to Zara and All Saints.  Other nearby occupiers include Ben Sherman, French Connection and Geox. Honey Birdette has 45 boutiques in Australia today, a rapidly growing online business through www.honeybirdette.com and over 115,000 social media followers.  The Covent Garden boutique will open at the end of August 2016.  The brand is bringing showbiz and razzle-dazzle back into lingerie retail, with founder and creative director Eloise Monaghan on a mission to empower and entertain the women of London.  Eloise comments: “The idea for Honey Birdette started over a glass of champagne while I was living in London.  It is only natural that Covent Garden has been selected for our UK launch.”   Yasin Sadiq, senior asset manager at Royal London Asset Management, adds: “We are pleased to have secured another strong retailer for the estate, which will complement the existing line up, and excited to see the brand open its first UK flagship in Covent Garden.” Peter Thomas, director in the Central London retail team at Savills, says: “56 Long Acre was a rare opportunity for a retailer to acquire a flagship location close to Covent Garden.  We are pleased to have secured this deal with Honey Birdette.” The adjoining unit, 55 Long Acre, is still available and provides a prominent corner position next to Zara. Honey Birdette is selectively reviewing further premium locations in London.  Source link

Graham Construction has been chosen over Kier to deliver a £150m major works programme for Barnet Council, following a one-month delay. Source link

5 August 2016 | Herpreet Kaur Grewal Hard FM service provider Arcus is to work with the Aktrion Group to offer cleaning services throughout Scotland through a new joint venture, ‘Arcus Cleaning Services’.   The venture represents the first venture into the soft services market for Arcus, which recently secured a ten-year contract with Sainsbury’s to provide M&E, refrigeration, lighting, drainage, building fabric and other self-delivered services to the retail giant’s supermarkets, convenience stores, petrol filling stations, depots and store support centres.    Sainsbury’s has since awarded a cleaning contract to Arcus for its Scottish stores which will see around 250 cleaners transfer to the Aktrion-Arcus partnership. The companies aim to work together to “transform the traditional perception of cleaning services, linking it with activities that technicians and engineers carry out”. Source link

BHP Billiton on Thursday became the first global miner to adopt a goal for women to make up half its workforce by 2025. The move was striking partly because the sector in which it operates is notorious for its lack of female representation. Two years ago Glencore, the miner and commodities trader, became the last FTSE 100 company to put a woman on its board. At BHP, women make up 17.6 per cent of staff, while at rival Rio Tinto, the figure is 18.5 per cent. A report by Women in Mining in 2015 found that just 8 per cent of board directors were female at the 500 mining companies it surveyed. BHP says it decided to buck the trend — and set itself such an ambitious aim — because it was “time to have a different conversation”. “If we had been going on as we were, it would have taken around 30 years to reach 30 per cent female representation,” says Athalie Williams, the company’s chief people officer. Most significantly, Ms Williams says, the goal made commercial sense. From tracking data across its operations, BHP knew its more diverse sites were also more successful, not just in terms of productivity but in terms of safety. Having a convincing business case to put to the board meant there was little opposition to revving up efforts to improve diversity. It is not just at BHP that the business case for greater corporate diversity has been gathering strength. Recent research by McKinsey suggests that companies in Europe in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 per cent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. It found that, in the UK, greater gender diversity on the senior executive team corresponded to the highest performance uplift in the 107 listed companies it analysed. For every 10 per cent increase in gender diversity at these companies, earnings before interest and tax rose by 3.5 per cent. “Correlation does not equal causation, and greater gender and ethnic diversity in corporate leadership doesn’t automatically translate into more profit,” says Emma Gibbs, partner at McKinsey. “But the correlation does indicate that when companies commit themselves to diverse leadership, they are more successful.” Closing the gender gap in the UK workforce alone, McKinsey estimates, has the potential to add £150bn to gross domestic product in 2025, and could translate into 840,000 more women in the labour force. Despite the commercial case, though, not all companies are even gathering data on the link between diversity and performance, and relatively few are making a public commitment to improving the gender balance within their workforce. This month a number of UK financial services firms announced targets for female representation in a push to improve the number of women appointed to senior roles in the sector. Of 72 firms to sign up to a recently-launched government charter aimed at improving gender balance, 60 have pledged to having at least 30 per cent of women in senior roles by 2021. Thirteen groups — among them Virgin Money and Legal and General — are aiming for gender parity in senior positions, while banks including Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC and Santander will publish in greater detail their strategies to improve the gender split. Greater gender and ethnic diversity in corporate leadership doesn’t automatically translate into more profit. But the correlation does indicate that when companies commit themselves to diverse leadership, they are more successful Such commitments, though, are relatively rare. The range of BHP’s operations — from mines in Chile to marketing in Singapore — means that, in some regions, staff already divide half and half between men and women. But, globally, only a fifth of senior managers are women. Experience so far at some of its further-flung operations gives some sense of the mountain to climb. At BHP’s enormous Escondida mine in Chile, there has been a deliberate focus on employing female truck drivers and tool operators, with about 60 women being trained for such roles, but this has only taken Escondida’s female workforce from 2 to 6 per cent of the total. The goal of gender balance applies to its board — currently a quarter female — and the executive committee — currently just over a quarter — as well as the wider workforce. Speaking after BHP’s annual meeting this week, Andrew Mackenzie, chief executive, suggested gender balance was within easier reach at the senior levels of the company. “It is dealing with the frontline operators where we have further to travel — maintenance [staff] in particular,” said Mr Mackenzie, whose pay will reflect how much progress has been made on achieving the goal. Related article Australian tells shareholders he stayed on to deal with Samarco dam collapse BHP’s aim of attracting and retaining a more diverse workforce has been facilitated by technology and innovation. Sites like its high-tech remote operating centre in Brisbane, Australia, which runs mines in Queensland, means that operational mining roles can now be offered to people with a different set of skills. “We need to make mining more attractive to a broader cross-section of people and no longer directly associated with an image of a white male in a hard hat with a dirty face,” says Ms Williams. This will mean not just questioning assumptions about what is required to be successful in the industry, but reforming recruitment, reward and promotion procedures. It will also mean changing working practices by, for example, introducing more flexible working policies for men as well as women. And, at some point, it will mean tackling a lack of diversity in BHP’s suppliers, given a large proportion of its workforce is made up of contractors rather than direct employees. The experime nt will inevitably be of great interest to BHP’s peers. If its policy in this area is successful both in operational improvements and in attracting talent, other miners may have to rush to catch up. Additional reporting by James Wilson Source link

The Apprentice winner, Joseph Valente, has signed up with NICEIC – the UK’s leading voluntary regulatory body for the electrical contracting industry. Valente was named the winner of the hit BBC show ‘The Apprentice’ last year. That victory earned him the backing of Lord Sugar and he is using his support to expand his plumbing, heating and electrical business, Impra Gas.   “It has been full on since winning The Apprentice, but it is a great platform for my business,” commented Valente. “The investment and support has allowed us to explore new areas and we just want to get going now and grab the opportunity.” Part of that development includes gaining NICEIC accreditation. As the nation’s leading and most recognised certification body, Valente admits NICEIC approval was vital to expanding his business. “Having specialised in the heating and plumbing sector I was well aware of NICEIC and it was the only brand that people really spoke about. “We used to sub-contract out all of our electrical work but winning The Apprentice means we have been able to take on two fully qualified electricians and start doing that work in-house. “Being an Approved Contractor with NICEIC means we can now offer a full electrical service to our clients including consumer unit changes and electrical reporting and testing.”Joseph is also keen to capitalise on the growing trend for smart technology around the home. Continual developments in technology in recent years have transformed the way we work. They are also increasingly changing the way we live in our ‘connected’ homes – something Joseph has identified as a specialist area for his business. “I think smart homes and the Internet of Things (IoT) is the way the industry is going,” he added. “Technology is developing all the time and I think being a pioneer in that particular area is a strong unique selling point for my business. “Winning The Apprentice has allowed us time to look at new avenues to explore – such as smart technology. Something we never had the time or money to do before.” Impra Gas currently employs five gas engineers and two qualified electricians. Originally based in Peterborough, Impra Gas will be expanding into Cambridgeshire and Northampton this year with further plans to grow the business and the services it offers. NICEIC CEO Emma Clancy added: “We are delighted to welcome Impra Gas and Joseph on board. “The NICEIC name is associated with quality and is great to know that when it comes to expanding and growing a business that Joseph turned to NICEIC – the name which for sixty years has stood for excellence and safe electrical working.” Source link