BRITAIN’S big freeze will blow a £1BILLION hole in the economy and could push long-suffering small firms to the wall.
Experts claim the record snowfall will cause havoc as millions of Brits are forced to take the day off and shops, gyms, pubs and factories close.
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) claims it could be too much for many firms desperate to generate cash to stay alive in the recession.
CEBR chief executive Douglas McWilliams: “We think the effect of what we’re seeing today could be around £1billion.
“A lot of companies could suffer quite badly, many small firms are already tottering on the brink.
“It’s important not to over-exaggerate the effects - the loss would have been a lot worse in previous years as more people can work at home now.
“But we think retailers and the leisure sector will be hit hard.”
The warning came as supermarkets reported a rush of panic buying across the country as families stock up on thermal underwear, wellies and soup.
MARKS & SPENCER today said that 56 of its stores were closed at some point yesterday. Manchester’s TRAFFORD CENTRE was also forced to close its doors.
If the current model *is* working and the operator has his/her head above water financially and enough captial, then no, they shouldn’t need to reinvent their restaurant. But what’s a fair price. What you or I may think of as fair (i.e. good price or value for the meal) someone else may think is overpriced and not fair. “Fair” is a pretty subjective term.
In the business world in which we’ve been living good food and good service should be enough to keep a healthy operator in business. This is true and I agree. What we don’t know for any restaurant are the operating costs - labor, rent, utilities, advertising/printing, laundry, insurance, equipment repair and, of course, the what it costs to put good food on the table. It doesn’t matter how good the food or the service is if the other expenses are too high to deal with. In normal times a good restaurant *would* be a natural survivor. We’re not in normal times.
Do I think every restaurant in this city is going to go belly up? No, of course, not. Nor do I think every restaurant needs to reinvent themselves. The dynamic and paradigm are shifting and we’re all having to feel our way through things no matter what industry we’re in. A solid restaurant should not have to reinvent itself but there may need to be some tweaking, modifications, alterations, whatever done in order to ensure profitability, survival and that it continues to meet the needs of an ever changing and increasingly nervous and budget minded dining customer.
Your point is well taken, a restaurant serving good food and providing good service at prices most people consider to be fair and equitable probably can survive. My guess is that it won’t look or do business 5 years from now like it does now.
Britons turned to chemical peels instead of facelifts during the recession last year, the UK’s largest cosmetic surgery provider said.
The Harley Medical Group said the number of face peel treatments of its Obagi Blue Peel â which start from £95 â tripled last year compared with 2008.
But breast operations remained the most popular surgical treatment, with mothers making up 60% of patients. Post-baby surgery accounted for 90% of tummy tuck operations and 75% of all breast uplifts.
The number of males opting for surgery also rose, with men making up 18% of all patients seen by the group. PA
Three-quarters of Geronimo’s central London pubs had record weeks in the seven days to December 20, averaging sales of £20,000 a week over the month.
Rupert Clevely, chief executive, said trading across Geronimo’s pubs – which include the Builders Arms and the Duke of Clarence in Chelsea – had been “very successful”.
“The evidence across our estate demonstrates that the London market remains strong and that people want to go out to quality food-led pubs,” he said.
Food sales rose 40pc, led by demand for “retro pub nibbles” such as homemade scotch eggs and pork pies, the pub group said. Consumers aslo appeared keen to drink away any recession blues with the total number of pints sold up 37pc and a greater share of wine sold in bottles rather than by the glass.
Douglas Jack, an analyst with Numis Securities, said the strong performance suggested other London-based pub groups – such as Fuller, Smith & Turner and Young’s & Co – would also have enjoyed strong Christmas trading periods, with food-led pubs leading the way.
“We believe eating out was less vulnerable to weather disruption than drinking out. Thus, restaurants and food-led pubs outperformed over the Christmas holiday,” Mr Jack said.
The Dark Side of Wealth
How the Super-Rich Are Coping with the Crisis
By Beat Balzli
When he speaks, Heinrich Weber sounds like a psychotherapist. But his profession involves addressing the worries of people who might normally be considered to have little to worry about. It’s an area that Weber, 46, knows well. He has heard plenty of tales of woe from his super-rich clients.
“Those who were born rich have seen the dark side of wealth,” says Weber, who is wearing a gold watch, a pinstriped suit and a pocket square, as he talks about his everyday life as a Swiss private banker. He isn’t being ironic.
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People worth hundreds of millions of Swiss francs, dollars or euros, says Weber, suffer from the “high expectations they are expected to fulfill.” Besides, he adds, they are mistrustful, believing that people are only interested in them for their money. This often causes “emotional problems and leads to isolation,” says Weber, with a sympathetic look on his face. Some of his clients even “deliberately wear old sweaters and drive old cars, so as not to appear rich.”
Painful Adjustment
Since the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, the clients in Weber’s world are faced with another painful reality. They are losing money — a lot of money. According to the US business magazine Forbes, the present net worth of the world’s billionaires shrank from $4.4 trillion (â¬3.1 trillion) to $2.4 trillion during the financial crisis. And the number of dollar billionaires worldwide declined from 1,125 before the recession to only 793 in March 2009.
Some of these prominent former members of the billionaires’ club lost part of their money in Germany. US investor Christopher Flowers, for example, had to say goodbye to his billionaire status as a result of his stake in the now-nationalized German mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate. Madeleine Schickedanz, a major shareholder in the now-insolvent trading company Arcandor, lost much of her fortune. German businessman Adolf Merckle even committed suicide when his empire threatened to collapse.
Financial consultants like Heinrich Weber are very busy these days, even though his line of work is so discreet that he doesn’t even want the exclusive Swiss private bank for which he works mentioned by name.
“If you’re the kind of person who has an irrepressible urge to tell his family or friends about these high-flying people, you shouldn’t work as a private banker,” says Weber, who recently published a handbook for working with the super-rich co-authored by industry colleague Stephan Meier. In the industry jargon, these people are known as “ultra high net worth individuals,” or UHNWIs.
The Need for Discretion
“Fortunately, my wife doesn’t have a problem with the need for discretion,” says Weber. “As a gynecologist, she is familiar with the concept of doctor-patient confidentiality.” And his two small children aren’t exactly a risk factor either. When the family recently took a trip on the luxury yacht of Weber’s best customer, the children did ask “why the man has such a big ship,” but they are still too young to be interested in specific names and facts.
Weber uses a quote from Goethe to describe the way he goes about his business: “Whoever wishes to keep a secret must hide the fact that he possesses one.”
And there are still plenty of secrets to go around, with about 20,000 UHNWIs living in the world today, more than a quarter of them in the United States. Germany, say experts, is home to an impressive 1,150 UHNWIs. What they all have in common are personal assets of at least $50 million. For some time now, discreet crisis management has been in demand in their milieu. “We work like a coach who asks the right questions,” says Weber.
Family-owned companies, in particular, “have faced difficulties,” he says, adding that many are deeply in debt. “For instance, I am urgently seeking a buyer for an enormous art collection,” says Weber, who only shows limited pity for his clientele.
There is a reason for his relative lack of compassion. Those affected by the financial downturn generally do not need to change anything about their lifestyle, as selling their villas or luxury cars would simply not bring in enough money, and the running costs represent a negligible share of their total income. And, of course, they can still afford to pay for the services of someone like Weber, even though the traditional culture of banking secrecy in his native Switzerland is gradually crumbling.
