W&D's Burtonwood legal reform help
Burtonwood's 420 tenants are to have licensing reform legal costs met by new owners Wolverhampton & Dudley in a move that will cost around £250,000 and save individual tenants around £500 each. Previously, Burtonwood tenants only had help from Burtonwood management in drawing up floor plans.
Last week, Wolves' £119m offer for Burtonwood was declared unconditional. The Burtonwood head office, which employs around 100 people, is expected to close at the end of March.
All Burtonwood business development managers and area managers will be retained by Wolverhampton. Full-time staff facing redundancy have been promised a minimum of £5,000 in severance pay. Stephen Oliver, managing director of W&D's Union tenanted arm, said: "We plan to be as generous as we can be."
Members of Burtonwood's board, including chairman Richard Gilchrist and chief executive Lynne D'Arcy, have stepped down after Wolves completed its acquisition.
l See City & business opinion p13
Adnams' Loftus savages soft' BITC
Suffolk brewer Adnams has lambasted campaign group Business in the Community (BITC) for being too soft on irresponsible members and announced its resignation from the organisation.
The BITC runs various programmes and campaigns aimed at improving the positive impact of companies on society. But Adnams chairman Simon Loftus told the Financial Times that many of its 700 members simply used it as a "PR fig leaf".
Adnams, which scooped the BITC Small Business of the Year award in 2003, challenged the organisation to name and shame those companies that were performing badly rather than rely on simple persuasion.
Loftus also aimed a parting shot at former J Sainsbury chief executive and chairman Sir Peter Davis who was re-elected to the BITC board last month. Davis left Sainsbury with a £2.6m bonus after failing to turn the company's fortunes around.
Loftus told the FT: "What does it say about an organisation like the BITC if one of its directors has been characterised by the press as being an exemplar of what people don't like about directors. It tends to undermine credibility."
l Changes at the top at Adnams p10
Heritage pubco's not for sale'
Heritage Pub Company has denied rumours that it is in talks to sell its 235-strong estate to Goldtry, the company that acquired 545 pubs from Punch Taverns last year.
Heritage chief executive John O'Neill, who, with fellow directors John Finney and David Harrison, owns Heritage with property company Atlas Way on a 50/50 basis, said: "There's always going to be rumours but we're not in discussions to sell at the moment."
