Business Diary: May 18

Boots figures are good medicine for Hornby

It appears it will take more than bumper results from pharmacy giant Alliance Boots for its chief executive Andy Hornby to shake off his association with the banking crisis.

Mr Hornby was chief executive of Halifax Bank of Scotland at the time of its near-collapse in 2008 and subsequent rescue by Lloyds Banking Group, but left soon after, waiving his entitlement to a 1m pay-off. Mr Hornby, who spent several years in senior posts at Leeds-based supermarket Asda before his move to HBOS, was appointed to the helm of Boots last summer. He was asked if lifting Boots' annual profits above 1bn would help to restore his reputation.

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"I expect to be judged on that over time," he said, adding the results were down to colleagues' hard work. "I would not attribute that to a personal contribution."

The group's executive chairman Stefano Pessina hastily interjected to get questions back on track. "We are here to talk about the results of Alliance Boots, so we should not talk about single individuals."

Still, Boots' storming profits suggest Mr Hornby is back in his element.

Inspiring story of blind adventurer

He has climbed Mount Everest, flown from London to Sydney in a microlight, completed a 150-mile run across the Sahara desert and hauled a sledge 250 miles across Antarctica.

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But what makes these achievements all the more impressive is the fact that Miles Hilton-Barber is blind.

The explorer and motivational business speaker is visiting Henshaws College in Harrogate on Thursday, June 10 to deliver a talk demonstrating how barriers and limitations can be overcome with the right attitude, team preparation and innovation, along with a healthy sense of humour.

Tickets cost 10 for the event, which starts at 6pm and is expected to last about two-and-half hours. To reserve a place, contact Susan Bartle on 01423 814500 or email susan.bartle@henshaws. org.uk.

Charming venture proves real jewel

There is nothing wrong at all with the industrial giants which build our houses, make our cars and give us the materials we need to do our jobs. They play a vital role in the economy but, occasionally, Diary hears of a business venture that for sheer glamour knocks them into a cocked hat.

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The elegant folk at Northern Ballet have joined forces with jeweller Azendi. The partnership will see the Leeds business design jewellry for NBT productions and create a range of sterling silver ballet charms to support the development of NBT's new home in Leeds.

The 12 charms will include an enamelled fan from NBT's Madame Butterfly, the Sugar Plum fairy from The Nutcracker, a swan from Swan Lake and a ballerina's tutu.

They will be on sale from early July online and in Azendi's 18 UK stores with 20 per cent of profits from the charms donated to momentum, NBT's fundraising campaign for a new purpose-built home in the centre of Leeds.

Best foot forward

It looks like Nestle UK chief executive Paul Grimwood was serious when he complained about politicians attacking the food industry over obesity.

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This Thursday, employees at Nestle in Bradford and Halifax will start a 16 week "innovative corporate wellness initiative" called the Global Corporate Challenge.

This is an annual event which encourages staff to "join together and walk themselves to better health".

The GCC challenges teams of seven to each walk 10,000 steps a day, recording their individual step counts, which are then tallied into a daily team total and plotted on the GCC website to complete a virtual walk around the world. The more active a team, the further they walk around the world.

Nestle is determined that its employees in Bradford and Halifax should become more active and work off the less positive aspects of easy access to Aero and KitKat bars.

By Royal command

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Cloth maker Joseph H Clissold found out just how important word-of-mouth advertising can be during a recent visit to Buckingham Palace.

The Bradford firm's marketing director, Malcolm Campbell, attended an event held by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh for the British clothing industry and, not wanting to miss a sales opportunity, took a few samples with him to show Her Majesty.

Ruth Crawshaw Sykes, sales manager and designer, recalls: "The thing was, the Queen went on to tell other people at the reception about the cloth, and about Malcolm, and people actually came looking for him asking to see it. She did a great sales job."

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