From Burberry to Alexandra Burke: The week’s five big stories

Alexandra Burke sang the praises of the long-awaited Broadway shopping centre when it finally opened in Bradford.

The singer and stage star cut the ribbon on Westfield’s £260m development, which was more than a decade in the making after falling victim to the financial crisis and subsequent recession.

Also this week, supermarket chain Morrisons said customer satisfaction is rising sharply as it implements a raft of changes to lure back shoppers from discounters Aldi and Lidl.

The news came as the Bradford-based chain announced a 2.6 per cent fall in like-for-like sales in the three months to November 1, which was worse than Tesco and Sainsbury’s, but ahead of Asda.

New chief executive David Potts said 60 per cent of customers said they were “very satisfied” with their shop at Morrisons, up from 51 per cent a year ago.

Sheryl Sandberg is one of the most recognisable business leaders in the world. But where would she be without ambition?

It is hard to imagine how someone could become chief operating officer of Facebook without drive and passion.

Not everyone who aspires to a career in the technology will reach those heady heights - but, according to one of the UK’s most prominent industry figures, ambition is essential for women to succeed in digital industries.

This week, Lesley Cowley OBE, non-executive director at AQL, said aiming high is key to achieving your goals - whether you are an entrepreneur running a business part-time or someone eyeing up a C-suite role at a tech giant.

Burberry revealed that it plans to employ more than 1,000 people at a new manufacturing and weaving facility for its heritage trench coat in the heart of Leeds.

Burberry said that work on the site, in the South Bank of Leeds, is due to begin in 2016 with an initial investment of £50m. The facility is expected to be completed in 2019.

On Tuesday, the new owners of the boutique hotel brands Malmaison and Hotel du Vin said that they plan to create up to 90 jobs by opening a new hotel in Yorkshire.

Paul Roberts, the chief executive of Malmaison Hotel du Vin, said the group was also carrying out multi-million pound refurbishment programmes at its three existing hotels in Yorkshire as part of expansion plans formulated by Frasers Hospitality, the group’s new owners.

Mr Roberts said the group was “very close” to announcing plans to establish another hotel in Yorkshire, which could open in 2017.