Business

London. 3 days a week in office. Financial journalism.

The expected range for this role is £26,000 – £30,000

Only just above minimum wage…..

All-electric Jaguars to cost £150,000, suggests boss

As Bloke on M4 has been saying.

Back when posh cars really were different. Two things that made them expensive. Same design costs, line set up costs etc, amortised over fewer cars. But also the actual machining, alloys, components, were better/more expensive.

The Jaguar V8 – 5 litre? – engine was made in the same Ford plant as the Ford engines. But in a separate corner, where they took more care etc. And Aston had a corner of the Jaguar bit for their engines. Sorta, not really but sorta, the very best bit went into an Aston, if not good enough into a Jag, if not good enough into a Ford.

Then they put sexy body and leather seats on top, expensive car.

These days, yes, same design etc costs, amortised over low sales. But the actual car is all pretty much the same components, isn’t it (well, isn’t it?). Same electric motors, same batteries even if the pack might be a bit different etc. And all those bits are made by the same people on the same machines.

So, the buy for a Jag is the body, the design, the leather seats and what else? The brand, sure.

But the brnad was created by that difference in quality of the engineering – at least in hte beginning. Now that’s the same across all cars then what’s left?

If BYD put a sexy body and leather seats on one of thei structures then why won;t that be the same as a Jag – brand excepted?

Sure, I’m being extreme to the point of near nonsense. But how long is the brand worth much when there isn’t that underlying difference in quality any more?

Georgia Stannard was a 22-year-old student when a bus ran over her foot, and her right leg had to be amputated. She struggled to cope, then came an unexpected offer — she’s now a model and the face of a high-street shoe brand

Do shoe shops still only put the left of the pair out on display in order to reduce shoplifting?

That equation was flipped in January with the launch of Pump.Fun, which lets people release new memecoins instantly, at no cost. The idea was to give people a safer way to trade memecoins by standardizing the underlying code, which prevents developers from building in malicious mechanisms to steal funds, in what’s known as a hard rug pull.

“Buying into memecoins was a very unsafe thing to do. Programmers could create systems that would obfuscate what you are buying into and, basically, behave as malicious actors. Everything was designed to suck money out of people,” one of the three anonymous cofounders of Pump.Fun, who goes by Sapijiju, told WIRED earlier in the year. “The idea with Pump was to build something where everyone was on the same playing field.”

Since Pump.Fun launched, millions of unique memecoins have entered the market through the platform. By some metrics, Pump.Fun is the fastest-growing crypto application ever, taking in more than $250 million in revenue—as a 1 percent cut of trades on the platform—in less than a year in operation.

Blimey. So what’s the plan then, Mateys?

Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, a national officer with the trade union GMB, said: “Recent history has shown we must retain control over crucial industries like steel. Leaving domestic production to the whims of the open market is sheer folly.

What bit of recent huistory is this? Other than the bit where your union members lose jobs that is?

He said: “We are absolutely committed to our manifesto commitment of a 2030 phase-out for new cars powered solely by internal combustion engines. We are not changing our level of ambition for the transition, and there will be no repeat of the uncertainty generated by the previous administration.

“But at the same time, the Transport Secretary and I have heard you loud and clear on the need for support to make this transition a success, and that’s why we will be consulting with you on changes to the same mandate and inviting your views on options for a better way forward.”

Banning an entire technology will always have huge and bad effects.

Hey, it might even be worth it, who knows.But it really is true that banning an entire technology is going to have huge effects. And if they’re not going to change the policy then those effects will happen.

My best guess – hey, it’s a guess – is that without significant tariff barriers it’ll be cheapo Chinese EVs that irrupt into the market. One of more of the European brands might not manage the transition.

At the moment, SpaceX is involved in various massive bureaucratic struggles with the Federal Aviation Administration and environmental authorities. Musk wants to make 25 Starship launches next year: at the moment the regulators want to limit him to five.

Why is the FAA trying to launches?

We can imagine all sorts of lawfare etc. But what is even the excuse they’re using?

I’ve already mentioned this but here we go again:

The boss of Jaguar has defended the carmaker’s controversial rebrand and said criticism of its marketing campaign had featured “vile hatred and intolerance”.

Rawdon Glover, the managing director of Jaguar, said the campaign message had been lost in “a blaze of intolerance”, adding that the carmaker must move away from “traditional automotive stereotypes”.

It comes after Jaguar ditched its historic “growler” cat logo and released an advert featuring models with asymmetrical haircuts and dressed in brightly-coloured clothing. It also includes the phrases “break moulds” and “create exuberant”.

Mr Glover told the Financial Times: “We need to re-establish our brand and at a completely different price point so we need to act differently.

The connection is that Meghan thinks that she can create a brand out of being Meghan. And that’s really – no really – not how it works. Brands can obviously be helped by advertising and positioning, sure. But the brand has to actually be. There’s got to be some nub there to start with. Heinz and Campbell’s canned soups becamae iconic brands, not started as them. They became because they got canning righter earlier and so poisoned fewer of their punters. Jaguar a certain snarling joy at 8 and 12 pistons encased in leather and wood. For want of a better phrase, sports saloons?

Sure, they’ve a problem now that snarling pistons are no longer to be allowed. But sticking up a few modish haricuts might not do that – a product worth being a brand could….

Even so, the decision by Jaguar to restyle its branding this week – focusing on an advert full of models but with no car in it – already looks set to join the great marketing flops of all time.

Jaguar has been a company with problems for many years, but through everything, its brand remained incredibly strong. Trashing it is only going to damage the company even further.

I’ve been looking – aghast, obvs – at Meghan over the past couple of years. She talks endlessly about her brand. Abuout developing it. And, well, she doesn’t really have a brand. She might be trying to create one but she’s not got one.

An extant brand means something. Has connotations. Forgetting this is, to me, to suffer from Meghan Disease.

As, I think, Jaguar is doing here. Gin and Jags, yes, OK, Har Har. But there really is a “brand” of somewhat archaic Englishness, Terry Thomas etc. And it’s a powerful one. Quite seriously I once did a $300k deal on a handshake as my Russian cooperator in the adventure said that everyone knows an Englishman’s word is his bond. Whether this brand is true is another thing but it undoubtedly exists.

And, if we’re honest about it, that’s the thing that Jaguar has to sell. Given the move to EVs the old engineering of the ICE cars is no longer relevant. The only way to sell an EV box at a premium is to have a brand. Which appears to be just what they’re throwing away.

Most odd.

A spokesman for the Treasury said they had “had to make difficult choices to fix the foundations of the country and restore desperately needed economic stability to allow businesses to thrive”.

“By doing this, more than half of employers will either see a cut or no change in their national insurance bills, there will be £22.6bn more for the NHS and workers’ payslips will be protected from higher tax.

So the £23 billion is being raised from only half of businesses then. No wonder that half are complaining….

Aston Martin shares hit skids after profits warning

Hasn’t that been an idea that’s eaten the capital.

Ho hum.

Is it 6 or 7 times the brand (note, not this company) has gone bankrupt?

The idea that this country benefits by allowing the best of UK plc to be creamed off by overseas buyers, or become their mere subsidiaries, is absurd.

Actually, it’s very nationalistic. Not really sure why, either.

Meanwhile, the sale of chip designer Arm – arguably the most successful technology company Britain has ever produced – in 2016 to Japan’s SoftBank must rank as one of the greatest acts of self-harm ever committed.

But the shareholders of ARM – who are the owners of it – made out like bandits. Why isn’t this a good idea?

Poor laddie has this idea that companies belong to the nation in some way. Rather than, you know, the shareholders?

The owner of a £3 million Georgian mansion has claimed low-flying planes landing at Heathrow Airport are damaging his manor house.

Daljit Bhail, 54, says the planes are “extremely dangerous” for his 28-room Grade II-listed home in Hounslow, west London, which he rents out on AirBnb.

The 18th-century property sits next to Heathrow’s south runway, and Mr Bhail claims it has been damaged by large gusts of wind. He also believes it has been damaged by ice and frozen sewage from onboard toilets that has fallen from the planes, a claim the airport denies.

“It’s just madness how they treat a listed building, and the planes wake me and guests up at 3am,” the property investor said.

When did you buy that house?

Mr Bhail alleges that low-flying aircraft have caused “vortex damage” to the roof of the mansion, which he bought for £600,000 in 2000.

Ah, so 60 years after the airport started then. Bugger off.

That it’s right by the runway is why it was only £600k…..

Companies forcing staff back into the office full-time are “dinosaurs” who wrongly believe their staff are “snowflakes”, according to the professor who coined the term “presenteeism”.

Sir Cary Cooper, a professor at the University of Manchester, said companies giving white-collar workers no choice but to go back to their desks full-time were “dinosaurs” who don’t trust their staff.

“Why I call them dinosaurs is they don’t ask, they mandate – this is not what the next generation want. You can call them snowflakes if you want, but they are more IT savvy and know they can work flexibly,” he said.

“Millennials have young kids, it’s costly to go into town, it wastes their time. We’re screwing our productivity up. Are we out of our mind? This is a no-brainer.

“Twenty years ago we didn’t have the technology we have now. This generation of workers are hard-working, they’re not snowflakes.”

Hmm, OK. Amazon has just insisted that everyone go back to the office 5 dasys a week.

So, who do we believe? One of the most valuable – and therefore possibly at least best managed – companies on the planet or a knighted professor who’s never run anything larger than a seminar?

Toughie, innit?

The former boss of Molton Brown is set to take charge of The Body Shop in a rescue deal that will keep 133 branches open.

Administrators at FRP said they had sold The Body Shop to a consortium led by cosmetics tycoon Mike Jatania after weeks of exclusive talks with the entrepreneur.

Charles Denton, the former Molton Brown chief, will become chief executive.

The move is expected to save more than 1,000 jobs, with Mr Jatania’s investment company Aurea understood to have no immediate plans to close any more stores. The Body Shop currently employs 1,300 people.

The new owners may look at finding better locations for current shops in various towns and cities, sources suggested.

UK commercial leases are 21, maybe 25 or 30 year things. With 3 or 5 year rent reviews. Rent reviews are upwards only.

Now, if commercial retail gets into trouble – Hello Online Shopping! – the system is hugely inflexible. Extant shops can’t negotiate their rents down. New market entrants can gain very much lower rents. Incumbents are therefore prey to new comers.

The way out is bankruptcy, administration or there’s a third similar thing. At which point you get to tell the landlords to go pound sand. And negotiate your rents down. Also, be free of thsoe 20 odd year commitments to specific leases.

Which is, I insist, what the Body Shop admin/bkruptcy/whatever it was was all about. Being able to screw the landlords. Perfectly viable business in there, storied brand name and all that. But got to get the cost base – the rents, rightsized. Commercial leases whose rent reviews could be up or down would have made it unnecessary.

Note, this may not be 100% oand only this be true. But I guarantee you it’s a lorra ‘f it.

Well, OK, maybe not actually lend him any money but:

The Indian-British businessman Sanjeev Gupta has described how companies within his steel conglomerate used stamps and digital images of his signature to certify documents because it was “simply not physically possible” for him to attend to the business personally and that the practice meant his signature was on documents he “had not personally reviewed or ever seen”.

Gupta’s legal representatives have made the statement in a defence document submitted as part of a $400 million dispute between Greensill, the collapsed financial firm, and Zurich, its insurer.

Big complicated business, of course he didn;t sign every doc, some of them were just stamped, he’d never even seen them.

The credit tho’ – I’m amazed he’s still going.

Boohoo is in a stand-off with suppliers after the struggling fast-fashion seller withheld payments over claims the quality of clothing was too poor.

Seconds always exist etc.

So do companies trying to manage cashflow exist.

The Manchester-based company also faces crucial debt negotiations in coming months as it attempts to convince lenders to refinance more than £300m of existing loans. Both Boohoo and its creditors have hired specialist debt advisers to oversee the discussions, a move that analysts at Shore Capital described as “concerning”.

Advisers at Interpath, who are attempting to rescue the company, said in a recent filing that they had struggled to locate millions of pounds.

In a report to creditors, they have said they were previously told that the company held more than more than $19m (£15m) in its bank account.

However, they have now uncovered that the business accounts were almost empty.

Interpath’s Jonathan Thielmann and David Standish said: “Statements show the balance as at the date of our appointment was $1,500 and the account balance was never greater than $4,000.”

Erm?

Despite reporting revenues of $677m last year with just 50 staff, Bank of Telecom collapsed two months ago.

The business now owes around £36m to lender Investec, as well as millions of pounds more to other debtors.

The administrators said Bank of Telecom’s accounts revealed that £95m remains owed by its mobile customers.

However, given they are largely overseas networks, the advisers said they had encountered significant difficulties contacting them.

The advisers added: “None of these large debtors have paid or communicated a readiness to pay.”

In the company’s filings, one director of the company said he had “lost confidence in the reliability of information emanating from the finance department”.

Sounds like Investec never did actually check the bank accounts before lending…..

There is an alternative explanation:

Bank of Telecom, which claimed to allow the trading of SMS and voice traffic between mobile companies,

Vast trading at tiny or even negative margins but the cashflow impressed?

China’s plot to seize control of the global jet market

OK, that’s one way.

After years of market dominance, the Boeing-Airbus duopoly is facing its biggest threat yet

That’s another. Wily orientals are to invade our markets? Or save us from a duopoly?

British Airways comes to rescue of England fans with more flights and bigger planes for final
Supporters had been facing travel misery for Euro 2024 showdown with Spain in Berlin due to lack of direct flights

Business spots profitable short term niche, no?