What have the living wage, Bristol Rovers and badgers got in common?
Half a point to those who answered “Steve Hilton”, as the prime minister’s former blue sky thinker is certainly one of the country’s unlikeliest converts to the first cause (while, if it sells a few more copies of his book, he might even consider asking his pal Dave to hug a Rovers fan). But the answer we were really looking for is that they will all be topics with which to bash Sainsbury’s this week as the grocer holds its annual meeting.
Bristol Rovers have been suing the grocer over the retailer’s plans to pull out of a deal to buy the football club’s ground, and Sainsbury’s is expecting a court ruling this week. Its board might also have to take questions from animal rights campaigners, who are attempting to stop the supermarket buying milk from areas where badgers are being culled. And that will merely be the warm-up before somebody brings up the living wage.
There’s an irony here, and not solely because of the grocer’s slogan “Live well for less”. While defending low pay, the Sainsbury’s board will also have to justify what shareholder activist Pirc terms its “significant concerns” over another issue. That would be the, er, potentially huge awards still on offer to former boss Justin King, who has “retained all his outstanding long-term incentive awards in full”.
Marc, Marc and Marks: it must be Wembley
In 1972 Marc Bolan played Wembley with T Rex. Marc Bolland will do the same with Marks & Spencer this week.
The chief executive will take the stage for the retailer’s annual meeting there on Tuesday, when you’ll have to be a real connoisseur to spot any differences between the two events. Still, if you watch the footage really closely you might notice one of the frontmen constantly preening his famous coiffure, while the other concentrates on his music.
Anyway, the City will be more interested in less juvenile comparisons. Analysts at Investec reckon that, when the retailer simultaneously announces its first-quarter trading, M&S’s good form may have been reversed, with same-store sales of general merchandise possibly turning negative again “as May’s cooler weather affected clothing demand”.
Still, with Marks it’s mainly about the third quarter (Christmas), so for now the City’s focus will be less on the actual merchandise and more on improving margins. Which brings us to another difference between the frontmen: one of them goes on about “your shoes and your stockings”, and the other runs M&S.
To the Mansion House for fine dining and panic
Another week, another chance for our nation’s bankers to squeeze into their dinner suits and visit the Lord Mayor of London’s gaff for dinner.
Just four weeks after the chancellor’s Mansion House speech – when the City satiated itself on a salmon and sea bass tartare, canon of lamb and aubergine polenta plus a rhubarb and almond tart – they’ll be back for a refill on Tuesday and an audience with George Osborne’s predecessor, Alistair Darling.
Yes it’s the annual dinner of the banking trade body, the British Bankers’ Association, an event that’s not even wildly exciting the bankers this year. Instead, they’ll spend the evening frantically speculating on the following day’s budget and what last month’s guest speaker will announce on how banks will be taxed. It’s enough to put some off the dinner’s traditional Stirrup Cup nightcap.
All of which may explain why the BBA feels the need to hype its bash so brazenly. In the bumf promoting the dinner, the trade body drools: “This prestigious event will provide a unique occasion for senior representatives and leading figures in the City to enjoy an evening of fine dining, networking opportunities and unrivalled speeches at the Mansion House.”
Unique in July, that is.
