Government officials took time off from Brexit negotiations last month to launch two crucial initiatives: A ‘traffic light’ scheme from DEFRA proposing retailers add red, amber or green labels to show if their packaging is recyclable. And a ‘calorie cap’ recommendation to limit the size of takeaway pizzas. A pleasant change to worrying about Brexit no doubt but rather missing the point – the need to reduce consumption. Curbing the volume of unnecessary packaging and banning double sausage and egg McMuffins would be a start. Quite how HMG would implement these proposals is not clear. Maybe Brexit will provide an answer.
Buying companies as a going concern is fun. Sometimes. Despite purchasers’ best efforts when sniffing around accounts, staff contracts, order book, supply contracts and other ‘due diligence’ they inevitably spend a couple of years digging up buried bodies:‘Oh sorry, didn’t you know the HQ is built over an old mineshaft?
Consider the UK’s High Streets. Hard on the heels of House of Fraser’s announcement of dozens of closures and the rumours about Debenhams you could almost forget how long they’ve been a bad news story. It was back in 2012 the penny finally dropped they were in trouble and it couldn’t be blamed on the 2008 banking collapse or the previous Labour government.
In Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking-Glass’ Alice takes part in a race with the Red Queen only to discover that despite running constantly she remains in the same place. The Red Queen is not sympathetic: ‘A slow sort of country!’ says the Queen. ‘Here you see it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast!”
If you are an ambitious business promoting itself on the internet then you need to know about the General Data Protection Regulation which comes into effect on 25thMay. The Customer database you are building is subject to the regs., especially if you ‘process’ the information e.g. categorise Customers so you can target them with special offers.
Jonathan Owen discusses VAT charged on Open Markets, Street Traders and Carbooters and problems facing bike share providers
The Panama Papers, squirming politicians, Sainsbury’s acquisition of Argos, taking your dog to work and the supermarket and Storm Gertrude. Jonathan Owen’s monthly round-up of the news is here.
Jonathan Owen discusses controversial government cuts, sugary drink consumption and restrictions on Sunday trading
Fictional East-end villains, Tesco suppliers and that £240 million accounting scandal