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Moto Hospitality
Moto Hospitality Limited, trading as Moto, is a British service station operator which operates 59 motorway service stations across the United Kingdom. It is currently the UK's largest service area operator. History Operations (2001–2020) Granada plc, Granada, who owned the chain of Granada motorway service stations, merged with Compass Group, Compass in July 2000 to form Granada Compass plc. The plan was to combine the hospitality interests of the two businesses and hive off the media division, which was done by demerging the new group into Compass plc and Granada Media in 2001. Previously, Granada had acquired Forte Group, Forte plc in a £3.3bn hostile takeover on 24 January 1996. It sold its French ''Cote France'' service stations to Italy's Autogrill in December 1997. The food and hospitality division of Granada was retained by Compass, which became part of its Select Service Partner (SSP) UK division, but ownership of the Granada brand and trademark passed to the new ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Private Company
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose Stock, shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in their respective listed markets. Instead, the Private equity, company's stock is offered, owned, traded or exchanged privately, also known as "over-the-counter (finance), over-the-counter". Related terms are unlisted organisation, unquoted company and private equity. Private companies are often less well-known than their public company, publicly traded counterparts but still have major importance in the world's economy. For example, in 2008, the 441 list of largest private non-governmental companies by revenue, largest private companies in the United States accounted for $1.8 trillion in revenues and employed 6.2 million people, according to ''Forbes''. In general, all companies that are not owned by the government are classified as private enterprises. This definition encompasses both publ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Macquarie Bank
Macquarie Group Limited (), more commonly known as Macquarie Bank, is an Australian multinational investment banking and financial services group headquartered in Sydney and listed on the ASX (). Macquarie's investment banking division is Australia's top-ranked mergers and acquisitions adviser with more than in assets under management and is one of the world's largest infrastructure asset manager. Macquarie Bank's customers have an overall net wealth per capita of (as of March 2024) making them amongst the wealthiest in Australia. The company employs more than 20,000 staff across four operating groups in 34 markets. History Hill Samuel Australia Macquarie was founded on 10 December 1969 as Hill Samuel Australia Limited (HSA), a subsidiary of the UK's Hill Samuel & Co. Limited. The group's logo is a stylised version of the holey dollar, Australia's first coinage which was designed by Governor Macquarie. Australian businessman Stan Owens compiled a proposal for Hill S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thorntons
Thorntons Limited is a British chocolate manufacturer owned by the Italian confectionery company, Ferrero. It was established in 1911 by William Joseph Thornton and Joseph Thornton, his father, in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England. When Cadbury became part of the Mondelez International predecessor Kraft Foods, Thorntons had become the largest confectionery-only parent company in Britain. The company was purchased by the Italian firm Ferrero in June 2015 for £112. Until and during the Second World War, the company was an established toffee and fudge maker. With post war rationing ending, the group's primary focus shifted to Belgian and Swiss-style chocolate in sets.A minority of sales is in novelties, decoration and café outlet remittanceFull accounts made up to the 31st August 2018Thorntons Ltd Annual Report 2018, Companies House. Retrieved 16 May 2020Clark, Andrew (7 May 2011)"Thorntons: why the chocolate-maker has gone into meltdown" ''The Observer''. The Guardian (theguardi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Body Shop
The Body Shop International Limited, trading as the Body Shop, is a British cosmetics, skin care, and perfume company founded in 1976 by Anita Roddick, who opened her first store in Brighton, England. The company is now based in London Bridge and Littlehampton, West Sussex, and is currently owned by Auréa Group. The Body Shop operated under the French cosmetics company L'Oréal between 2006 and 2017. In September 2017, L'Oréal sold it to Brazil's Natura & Co for £880 million. In November 2023, Natura sold it to Aurelius. On 13 February 2024, it was announced that Aurelius had put the UK business of the Body Shop into administration, that the chain would close up to half of its 198 stores in the UK, and that the number of staff at the chain's head office would be reduced by 40%. In March 2024, the company announced that it would shutter its operations in the United States and reorganize in Canada under bankruptcy protection. The Body Shop was acquired by Auréa Group in S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halfords
Halfords Group PLC is a UK retailer of motoring and cycling products and services. Through Halfords Autocentre, they provide vehicle servicing, MOT, maintenance and repairs in the United Kingdom. Halfords Group is listed on the London Stock Exchange. History Halfords was founded by Frederick Rushbrooke, in Birmingham in 1892, as a wholesale ironmongery. The company takes its name from Halford Street, named after the physician, Henry Halford, in Leicester, where Rushbrooke opened a store in 1902 and started selling cycling goods. Halfords opened its two hundredth store in 1931, and purchased the Birmingham Bicycle Company in 1945. It opened its three hundredth store in 1968. The company became a part of Burmah Oil in 1965, following a takeover battle between Burmah and Smiths Industries. The company was acquired by the Ward White Group in 1983, from whom the Boots Group acquired it in 1989. Halfords was later demerged from the Boots Group in 2002. Halfords was taken o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boots (company)
Boots UK Limited (formerly Boots the Chemists Limited) is a British health and beauty retailer and pharmacy chain that operates in the United Kingdom. It also operates internationally, including Ireland, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Thailand and Indonesia. The parent company, The Boots Company plc, merged with Alliance UniChem in 2006 to form Alliance Boots. In 2007, Alliance Boots was bought by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Stefano Pessina, taking the company private, and moving its headquarters to Switzerland, making it the first-ever FTSE 100 company to be bought by a private equity firm. In 2012, Walgreens bought a 45% stake in Alliance Boots, with the option to buy the rest within three years. It exercised this option in 2014, and as a result Boots became a subsidiary of the new company, Walgreens Boots Alliance, on 31 December 2014. Boots is one of the largest retailers in the UK and Ireland, both in terms of revenue and the number of shops. As of December 2024, Boots ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marks & Spencer
Marks and Spencer plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks & Sparks or simply Marks) is a major British multinational retailer based in London, England, that specialises in selling clothing, beauty products, home products and food products. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. M&S was founded in 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer (businessman), Thomas Spencer in Leeds. Through its television advertising it asserts the exclusive nature and luxury of its food and beverages. It also offers an online food delivery service through a joint venture with Ocado. In 1980, M&S became the first British supermarket chain to sell packaged sandwiches. In 1998, M&S became the first British retailer to make a pre-tax profit of over £1 billion, although it then went into a sudden slump taking the company and its stakeholders by surprise. In November 2008 the company began to sell branded goods such as Kel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WHSmith
WH Smith plc, trading as WHSmith (also written WH Smith and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son), is a British retailer, with headquarters in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of railway station, airport, port, hospital and motorway service station shops selling books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery. The company was formed by Henry Walton Smith and his wife Anna in 1792 as a news vendor in London. It remained under the ownership of the Smith family for many years and saw large-scale expansion during the 1970s as the company began to diversify into other markets. Following a rejected private equity takeover in 2004, the company began to focus on its core retail business. It was responsible for the creation of the ISBN book identifier. The company reached an agreement in 2025 to sell its high street store business to Modella Capital. Upon completion of the sale, that business will be renamed TGJones. WHSmith is listed on the Lond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pret A Manger
Pret a Manger (; French for "ready to eat") is a British multinational sandwich shop chain founded in London, England, in 1983. It is popularly referred to simply as Pret. As of January 2025, Pret had over 700 locations across 19 countries and territories, including 474 in the UK (369 of which were in London) and 67 in the United States. Pret a Manger has additional locations in Belgium, Canada, France, Dubai, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, Portugal, Qatar, Singapore, Spain, South Africa and Switzerland. History First restaurant Jeffrey Hyman founded the first Pret a Manger in London on 21 October 1983. The first shop opened in Hampstead, Camden, in 1984. The name was originally based on , French for "ready-to-wear clothing". Beginning in June 1983, the company traded at 58 Hampstead High Street for 18 months, during which time takings fell below the point of breaking-even, forcing the company into liquidation. Both the name and visual branding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A1 Road (Great Britain)
The A1, also known as the Great North Road, is the longest numbered road in the United Kingdom, at . It connects Greater London, London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The numbering system for A-roads, devised in the early 1920s, was based around patterns of roads radiating from two hubs at London and Edinburgh. The first number in the system, A1, was given to the most important part of that system: the road from London to Edinburgh, joining the two central points of the system and linking two of the UK's mainland capital cities. It passes through or near north London, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Stevenage, Baldock, Biggleswade, Peterborough, Stamford, Lincolnshire, Stamford, Grantham, Newark-on-Trent, Retford, Doncaster, Pontefract, York, Wetherby, Ripon, Darlington, Durham, England, Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle upon Tyne, Morpeth, Northumberland, Morpeth, Alnwick, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Dunbar, Haddington, East Lothian, Haddington, Muss ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, Northamptonshire to the west, and Bedfordshire to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Peterborough, and the city of Cambridge is the county town. The county has an area of and had an estimated population of 906,814 in 2022. Peterborough, in the north-west, and Cambridge, in the south, are by far the largest settlements. The remainder of the county is rural, and contains the city of Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely in the east, Wisbech in the north-east, and St Neots and Huntingdon in the west. For Local government in England, local government purposes Cambridgeshire comprises a non-metropolitan county, with five Districts of England, districts, and the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peterborough
Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. As of the 2021 census, Peterborough had a population of 192,178, while the population of the district was 215,673. Human settlement in the area began before the Bronze Age, as can be seen at the Flag Fen archaeological site to the east of the city centre. There is evidence of Ancient Rome, Roman occupation. The History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon period saw the establishment of a monastery, Medeshamstede, which later became Peterborough Cathedral. In the 19th century, the population grew rapidly after the coming of the railway. The area became known for its brickworks and engineering. After the Second World War, industrial employment fell and growth was limited until Peterborough was designated a New towns in the United Kingdom, n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
