Why would a housebuilder diversify into ice-cream making? You’ll have to ask Galliard Homes chief executive Stephen Conway.
A common-sense man of mature years who admits to fighting his weight by shuffling (very slowly) around Regent’s Park in the morning, Conway has just bought a 20% stake in ice-cream maker Wheyhey, whose other investors include supermodel David Gandy.
Will Conway have to trot a little faster in future? Nope. Wheyhey is made of a high protein byproduct of the cheese process, and natural sugar xylitol. Sounds horrible. But he says it tastes like nectar despite having half the calories of normal ice cream.
Habgood has a new office to size up
Belated congratulations to Anthony Habgood, who becomes chairman of the Court of Bank of England in July.
Regular Spy readers will recall that Habgood’s first act when he became chairman at LexisNexis publisher Reed Elsevier four years ago was to knock two offices into one, doubling the size of his workspace. He will have his work cut out if he tries to upsize the modest room he inherits from Sir David Lees in the same way.
As Deputy Governor Andrew Bailey, himself a convert to the joys of open-plan working at the Prudential Regulation Authority on Moorgate, reminded people in these pages last week, the Bank’s Threadneedle Street home is English Heritage-protected.
“Good luck if you try to change anything in that building,” he said. “You would be standing there with a hammer for a very long time.” That sounds like the earnest Habgood’s first challenge come summer.
Christopher Rodrigues eyes FTSE return?
Who might replace Habgood as chairman of Whitbread? Keep an eye on Christopher Rodrigues, who is nearing the end of his term as chairman of tourist body VisitBritain.
The former Visa International chief has spent the last seven years luring visitors to the capital, many of whom will have stayed in Whitbread’s Premier Inns. Even better, when he is in China checking on progress at the visa-processing centres, Rodrigues is likely to have sipped Costa coffee in Shanghai or Beijing airports, as a result of the company’s international expansion. Add in leisure expertise from his time at Thomas Cook and Ladbrokes, and could this be his passport back into the FTSE?
Sackful of probes into postal float
Witness the flurry of activity by the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee in reopening its inquiry into the questionable sale of the Royal Mail. A new hearing will take place days before the Public Accounts Committee’s own probe into the flotation that favoured some City buyers, only to see many of them sell out after making a quick buck. Will Vince Cable ever be allowed out of Portcullis House again?
What is interesting is that the BIS committee, chaired by Adrian Bailey, has suffered from comparison with PAC, chaired by the indefatigable Margaret Hodge, and the Treasury Select Committee, whose chairman Andrew Tyrie was on show quizzing Otto Thoresen of the Association of British Insurers yesterday. That’s despite good works by the BIS committee on adult literacy and numeracy and payday loans.
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What else could Bailey do to raise his committee’s profile? How about joining the throng of bodies looking into what has gone wrong at the Co-op? Then again, that might be too close to home for the Labour (Co-op) Member for West Bromwich West.
