Are you being short-changed on your pint?
A big week in UK technology and infrastructure.
Hey there,
I had pneumonia this week which to be quite honest, I thought was the sort of thing that only happens to Rupert the Bear. As infections go it seems like a pretty Victorian one although they’ve stopped treating it with Arsenic so the odds of survival are significantly higher.
Like any obstinate Englishman, I insisted on a full week of white-knuckling my way through a 40-degree fever and weird lung sounds before deciding some medical attention might be a good idea. And I tell you, there’s nothing like a Monday night trip to St George’s in Tooting to encourage you to eat your greens.
Anyway, a course of antibiotics, 728 paracetamol, a few good nights' sleep, numerous blueberries and too much television later I’m back baby!
Stay healthy,
Hugo
Chief Pneumoniac
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
Coventry Building Society (CBS) to buy the Co-op Bank 🏦 - private equity investors currently own the bank after it splintered off from the main Co-op Group in 2017. It’s a big acquisition for CBS which will offer significantly more products because of the deal and ultimately want Co-op Bank customers to become members of the society.
Trading Standards have waded in on how pints are being poured 🍺 - according to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI), 70% of the drinks it sampled across the country are being short-measured. There’s still some ongoing debate about whether the head is part of the pint but even if it is included CTSI still found a third of pints to be falling short. Which when you’re paying £6.80, is not good enough really, is it?
New owners of Carlisle Lake District Airport promise to invest £5m 🛬 - Carlisle has always had an air of mystique to me, embarrassingly I think down to the Royal Navy advert and the character in the Twilight series. Anyway, AW Jenkinson has taken control of its airport and whilst they're being coy about specific plans they are going to invest significantly.
UK facility for testing satellites opens 🛰 - the UK’s involvement in the space race always has the air of some sort of Carry on up the Cosmos type escapade but we are getting increasingly more serious. The National Satellite Test Facility has opened at Harwell where objects intended for orbit can be shaken and heated to ensure they are ready for space.
Slough has the largest collection of data centres in Europe 💾 - I mean it's still not quite the headline that the local tourist board is looking for to help solve the twenty-year malaise caused by The Office but who’d have thought it would be a tech hub? Let’s just say the M4 isn’t the only highway the good town of Slough is on, it’s on the data highway (and the Free Love Freeway).
Electric motor company to open on WW2 base in Bicester 🏍️ - YASA, a spin-out from Oxford University that was bought by Mercedes in 2021 has been permitted by the local council to crack on with their building designs. It is part of a wider Innovation Quarter that will be occupied by technology companies. RAF Bicester was used as a training centre throughout the war.
KPMG to merge its UK and Swiss businesses 👫 - the new entity will have a combined revenue of £4.4bn and is scheduled to commence from 1st October. The partners are seeking to increase revenues through a more comprehensive and less siloed approach to the European market. Deloitte made a similar move back in 2006.
Ceramics are a potential solution to data centre heat 🧱 - all the computing power required to fuel both the internet and the AI boom chucks off loads of heat. A two-hundred-year-old Japanese pottery maker may hold part of the solution. Maruwa makes specialist ceramics, which are incredibly effective at heat dissipation and are being used to make circuit boards in AI server farms.
AI music creation app raises $125 million 🤖 - Suno can generate songs using text prompts which is fun and all but I’m not sure lowering the barrier to entry to making music any lower is a good idea. We already have endless generic house music, allowing everyone to make music is just going to end in lots of atrocities like this.
Hard seltzers are suffering the same fate as fake meat 🥛 - a couple of years ago you couldn’t move for people launching hard seltzer brands. They seemed like the future, booze but water but yummy. The only big name that remains in the game is White Claw, which controls about 60% of the market.
Quote of the day
“Wrap up! You’ll catch your death!” - Every mum ever