The FTSE 100 company you've probably never heard of
Some companies are doing well, some aren't doing so well.
Hello,
The clocks went back in the UK today which on the one hand, great, we all got an extra hour in bed. On the other hand, shouldn’t the time just be the time?
British Summer Time was first introduced in the Summer Time Act 1916. Until 1840 the UK had observed local meantime which meant every town and city had its own timezone. It was Great Western Rail who decided this was silly. Contrary to popular belief, BST doesn’t have anything to do with farmers or candles. An English builder and outdoorsman called William Willett noticed everyone was still in bed whilst out on an early-morning ride in 1907. He lobbied the government and it was actually after his death (clearly he was already old if he had time to be lobbying the government about the time) that it was finally implemented.
There’s been a constant debate about how time should work with a number of bills introduced in Parliament. The present government has decided it has some more pressing issues to take on, however. The EU is also looking at mandating that each member country stick to one timezone of their choosing which could potentially mean Ireland and Northern Ireland end up in different timezones for half a year.
Don’t even get me started on the timezone in Spain.
Just a minute,
Hugo
Chief Timekeeper
The Business of Stuff
The Stuff
John Lewis has opened a revamped beauty hall 💄 - I’ve never quite understood these places. Are the assistants on commission? Do they work for the brands? I just march through, offering a smile and a nod. Britain is spending £4bn a year on beauty stuff and John Lewis has managed to cram 175 brands into the newly-opened space on Oxford Street.
Megabus is shutting routes as people are finally growing up 🚌 - the company has failed to recover from the pandemic as everyone realised that life is just far too short to be sitting on one of their coaches. The routes being cut will be in England and Wales with all Scottish routes remaining open. The company is headquartered in Glasgow and owned by Scottish CityLink.
Founder of easyJet is having a crack at gambling ♣️ - you’d have thought that Stelios Haji-Ioannou would have learned from the less-than-runaway success of EasyGym, EasyCoffee and all the other easys that it might be best to stick to one vertical. When you find yourself playing roulette on EasyBet it’s probably about time to slow down.
Mike Ashley wades into the Boohoo situation 👗 - having built up a stake in the company via Frasers Group he now wants to be CEO which would require reducing the time he spends in Mallorca and Miami and moving to Manchester. Both an alliterative and peculiar move, in some people’s eyes.
The runtime of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is being cut 🎭 - the original play was a whopping 5 hours and 15 minutes run over two nights when first launched in London. The New York version was then cut down to 3 hours and 30 minutes but the latest iteration going on tour is under 3 hours to cater to the masses.
Satyna Nadella gets a pay rise despite asking for a reduction 💰 - the Microsoft CEO saw his pay package rise 63% to $79.1m as the company took in 16% more revenue. He asked for a reduction due to several cyber attacks this year. The board acquiesced, docking his cash pay by more than half. However, this only represented around $5m as most of his compensation was in shares.
Chapel Down is giving up its attempt to find a buyer - the UK’s largest wine producer put itself on the market several months ago but has not been able to find anyone willing to pay what they think it's worth. Growing conditions have worsened as the year has gone on, reducing the appeal and potential price.
Founders of White Stuff are selling up for £40m 🏂 - the company began as two ski bums selling t-shirts out of a suitcase at fancy resorts in 1985 and became one of the UK’s biggest privately owned companies. The company is being sold to TFG London which is owned by The Foschini Group. The two founders who are now 61 will be stepping back from the business.
The FTSE 100 company you’ve probably never heard of - Relx is an information and analytics group valued at more than £65 billion. The scope of stuff they do is pretty wide from fraud and identify check services to the LexisNexis legal database and an exhibitions business which runs events like Comicon. The events division was up 13% as people looked to get out and do stuff after the pandemic.
Precision fermentation can produce cheap protein 🥩 - companies like Air Protein are attempting to capitalise on a process that has been used for years to make insulin to develop a new source of nutrition. Not only does this type of bacteria produce protein, which we rely on animals very heavily for, but it also does it using carbon dioxide, which we’ve got too much of.
Quote of the week
“Dog’s lives are too short. Their only fault, really.” - Agnes Slight Turnbull