Business Diary: January 22

AS snow blankets vast swathes of Britain, the glory of last year’s Olympics and Paralympics might seem a fading memory.

However, according to a release that thudded into Diary’s inbox, the Olympic spirit could keep Britain working during the big chill.

It’s all about remembering that simple Scouting mantra – “Be prepared!”

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Diary heard from Julian Hunt, enterprise risk services partner at Deloitte in the North East and Yorkshire, who said: “With much of Britain braced for more snow, some of the lessons learned preparing for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games could be just as useful now.

“With severe weather having the potential to disrupt business, employers are becoming ever more reliant on staff working from home..It is no use having plans in place if they cannot be effectively implemented. After London 2012 many firms said they had benefited from testing their plans ahead of the Games as this helped raise awareness – the same principles could apply to severe weather planning.”

Perhaps Lord Coe should be drafted in to ensure the wheels of industry keep turning during the winter?

Greggs on TV

GREGGS has had its fair share of headlines in recent times, with the ‘pasty tax’ row giving the bakery chain ample media coverage.

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And the business is clearly keen to maintain its presence in the public eye as it has launched a new marketing campaign, which includes its first TV advert in more than two years.

The campaign was developed by Greggs and led by Leeds-based advertising agency Gratterpalm in conjunction with a team of creative agencies: Carat, which has a base in Leeds, Steel, Havas PR UK and UnMissable.

Greggs, which led a successful campaign to beat the Government’s unpopular ‘pasty tax’, has invested more than £1m in the campaign, which is designed to promote Greggs’ breakfast and lunchtime meal deal offers and its new scratch card promotion.

Graeme Nash, head of customer and marketing at Greggs, said: “The new campaign is focussed on value, quality and freshness, and the great options available at Greggs. As well as investing in TV, the campaign will also be heavily supported digitally through the Greggs’ website, Facebook and email engagement.”

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Greggs has 1,600 shops in the UK, including 120 in the Yorkshire region, and employs 265 employees at its Yorkshire bakery and around 1,500 people in its shop teams across the region.

Salt of the earth

AS the recent burst of wintry weather hit businesses and travellers for a fourth day yesterday, fears were growing of an unprecedented ‘triple-dip’ recession. But for some businesses the snow and ice have been a blessing.

Slingsby, which supplies workplace products, said the cold snap has resulted in queues of people turning up at its trade counter in Baildon to stock up on salt.

As a result the company, which launched a specialist salt distribution facility and bagging plant last year, said it has smashed all its previous monthly salt sales records after selling hundreds of bags to the domestic market alone in the last week.

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Lee Wright, marketing director at Slingsby, said: “At a time when many suppliers are running out of salt we still hold healthy stock levels and our salt bagging plant is currently working around the clock to ensure that we can continue to meet the demand that the current weather conditions are creating.

“We’re currently supplying salt to everyone from homeowners buying five kilogramme bags for their driveways through to local authorities and businesses that are buying several tonnes at a time.”

He added: “In addition we’re also selling high numbers of other winter products, including hundreds of snow shovels and grit bins over the last week, to both the domestic and commercial markets.”

No place like home

OUTGOING Morrisons’ finance director Richard Pennycook will be looking for a chief executive or chairman’s role when he leaves the Bradford-based Plc later this year.

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He says he would ideally like to stay in Yorkshire where he lives with his family outside York. “I want to do other things and build a new career,” he told Diary.

“The family will stay in Yorkshire. We love it here. I’m an adopted Yorkshireman now.”

In a rare moment of humour he confessed that his time as an FD is up.

“I’ve done 20 years as a public company finance director. I’m not sure if you get that much for murder these days,” he admitted.

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