News that Gross Margins at Patisserie Valerie were ‘constant and out of line with peers’ confirms that everyone was ‘asleep at the wheel’, not just Luke Johnson. This gives me the perfect opportunity to jump on my soap box and promote Gross Margin percentage (Gross Profit as a % of Sales) as the most important measurement for a trading business (with cash controls a very close second).

Buy to Let investors frustrated by increased regulation and diminishing returns from residential portfolios have turned to commercial property. We talk to many new buyers in this market, usually testing the market with ‘semi-commercial’ properties (typically retail on ground floor and flats above) because they at least understand renting flats. The auction rooms have seen Read more about Thinking of holding commercial property in a SIPP? – be aware of the pitfalls[…]

The background to ‘The Alternative Remedies Package’ is well documented, in fact it could justify a book. After ‘Humpty fell off the Wall’ in 2008 and RBS had to be recapitalized by the UK Government to the tune of £45 billion, the European Commission ruled this was a form of ‘State Support’ and because RBS already Read more about Are you an RBS/Williams & Glyn business customer – if so what should you be doing?[…]

I was intrigued recently when the owner of a sizeable business got in touch because he said he’d read a blog of mine from 2011 and that it was still the most helpful thing he could find on the internet about Mortgage Debentures. Flattering perhaps, but I’ve checked it and there isn’t much out there! Read more about Mortgage Debentures as bank security – what you need to know[…]