Business Diairy: January 26

Gordon Banham, the rising star of the UK coal industry, is replicating his successful carbon pipeline venture in the renewables sector, with a chain of clean power stations powered by vegetable oil.

The two-year-old Rocpower business is starting to come to fruition as the first of six new sites was commissioned last month.

Mr Banham, the chief executive of Hargreaves Services, revealed one of the things he has learned since starting work on the new venture during a recent investors' day trip in Yorkshire.

"Running a power station is a bit like looking after a sick relative.

"You have to keep an eye on them and you worry about if they're going to be okay!"

Hunger for change

The Very Hungry Caterpillar might seem unlikely reading for a chief executive.

But Northern Foods chief executive's description of recent trading sounded strangely similar to Eric Carle's popular children's book.

Explaining flat third quarter sales, Stefan Barden said the Leeds-based group is in a transition stage as it ditches unprofitable contracts.

"We are thinking of this as a metamorphosis, going from a caterpillar to a butterfly," he said. "We are in a chrysalis phase at the moment."

But it will take more than that to win round analysts and persuade them that take-off is just around the corner.

Evolution Securities last week trimmed its earnings expectations citing its concerns about Northern's loss of market share.

Love is in the air

With St Valentine's Day fast approaching, PR firms are working hard to push romance into bed with finance.

The two unlikely bedfellows are thrown together in a missive on First Funding, a firm which matches business lenders and borrowers.

Founder William Flatau's private commercial finance brokerage firstfunding.org apparently works "rather like an online dating site" and even includes case studies of good and bad partnerships.

Still, in these credit crunched days, there's probably a steady stream of desperate directors furtively logging on.

Face values

REGULAR Diary readers will be familiar with Beverley-based skin doctor and facialist Dr Katerina Steventon.

During the recent cold snap, a press release was issued on her behalf, urging Yorkshire folk to moisturise more frequently to ensure their faces didn't develop wrinkles in the cold. Now Ms Steventon, who owns FaceWorkshops Skincare Consultancy is due to talk to a networking group about how first impressions count when you're doing business.

During the meeting she will describe how facial appearance is linked to physical health and how a fresh complexion can make you appear successful, intelligent and confident.

She said: "When you walk into a room full of people, you subconsciously gravitate to people with a healthy complexion.

"The face is the most exposed part of our body, always visible to others, and continually displaying strong non-verbal signals to others."

Czech born Ms Steventon, who has a PhD in skin science, continues; "Deterioration of our facial appearance has a significant impact on the quality of our life and impacts greatly on our confidence and communication."

Members of the East Riding Business Network (ERBN) will learn more at its meeting on February 2 at Tickton Grange, Tickton, near Beverley and meetings start at 7pm. For more information visit www.erbn.co.uk

Snack express

It Is nice to know the Government has its priorities right on improving the East Coast Main Line, which it nationalised late last year.

"We've extended our range of complementary snacks in First Class," reads an earnest email from the new operating company, East Coast Main Line Company Limited. "We've listened to your feedback and are working with a range of gourmet snack suppliers."

First class passengers will be pleased to hear they can now take their pick from biscuits, fruitcake, peanuts, yoghurt bars and hand-fried potato crisps (depending on what time of day they're travelling).

Let's hope the Government is working as hard to turn the route, back into a viable commercial venture. Transport group National Express was forced to hand back the keys after struggling to make it pay.