How Companies House works and why it was so easy to lie to
For 180 years the UK company registrar recorded whatever it was told without checking, and the identity-verification regime now rolling out…
Marcus Vale
5
Business
Markets, companies, the economy and the money stories that affect your life.
228 stories
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Auto-enrolment pensions: where your eight per cent actually goes
Auto-enrolment defaulted more than ten million workers into pensions they never chose, and the eight per cent headline conceals a…
Marcus Vale
6
What an IPO actually involves and why London keeps losing them
An initial public offering is an 18-month sequence of prospectus drafting, FCA review, roadshows and bookbuilding, and the mechanics…
Marcus Vale
4
Why your favourite cafe takes card only, and what it costs them
Card-only tills trade a visible percentage fee for the hidden costs of cash, and the arithmetic now favours cards for most small…
Rachel Stone
1
Succession in family firms: the conversation most owners put off
Most family businesses do not survive the second generation, and the failures are usually about unplanned handovers rather than bad trading.
Marcus Vale
How dividends work and why some companies never pay them
Dividends are board-declared distributions of realised profits, hedged by Companies Act rules and ex-dividend mechanics, and a company's…
Marcus Vale
How supermarkets decide what you pay for a basket of groceries
Grocery prices are set through known value items, margin mix and loyalty pricing, a system designed around how shoppers judge cheapness…
Rachel Stone
Franchising in the UK: what the glossy prospectus leaves out
Franchising sells a business-in-a-box, but the box comes with fees on turnover, tied suppliers and an exit that needs the franchisor's…
Marcus Vale
How supermarket own brands are actually made
Own-label groceries now account for roughly half of UK supermarket spending, and much of it rolls off the same factory lines as the brands…
Marcus Vale