Week ending: Buritto boss confirms Southern stereotypes & more

IT seems our Northern frustration about our prejudiced friends in the South is justified. They really don’t believe there’s anything worth talking about beyond Watford.

Morgan Davies, chief executive of Manchester food business Barburrito, which has been trading in the North West since 2004, reports that while there has been a positive response to his recently-opened sites in London, many customers think it is a new enterprise.

He relates: “They are mystified when I tell them that we have 10 sites in five cities and we were first buritto business to open in the country nearly 10 years ago.”

I don’t suppose anything should be surprising given that it’s only two years since a London-based soon-to-be-relocated BBC executive questioned whether she could get a cappuccino in Salford!

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BETFRED finance finance director Barry Nightingale raised a few eyebrows at a round-table on Wednesday to discuss our annual State of the Region survey.

Asked to name a reason to be cheerful for 2014, the plain-speaking Boltonian said he is looking forward to the completion of Vodafone’s £54bn mega-sale of its stake in US telecoms group Verizon.
 
The reason for his excitement soon emerged as he confessed to having a ‘small’ stake in the telecoms group.

When asked by Week Ending, which other company he’s backed, his answer was a canny but cryptic  “Now, that would be telling.”

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IF you’ve ever worried about working conditions in the high tempo world of public relations, fear not.

Good Relations Regional in Manchester, formerly Bell Pottinger, has been encouraging its team to take a 20-minute power nap between 12-2pm.

It was a week-long experiment but now the firm’s managing director Zoe Ensor says she is looking at “installing napping facilities” – also known as beds – on a permanent basis.

“We were all very impressed with the results, our team were a lot chirpier and brighter, even our clients noticed the benefits,” she said.

But there were other motives, after all it is a PR firm. The experiment tied in with the launch of the ‘Triple G’ handbook by Good Relations, “which measures the performance of top consumer brands against all three key elements within the ‘power of good’: good actions, good engagement, and good recommendations”.

Oh, and the duvets the staff are huddling under were supplied by one of the firm’s clients, Slumberdown.