Business – Slugger O'Toole

It’s a rat trap and we’ve been caught…

Brian O'Neill on July 24, 2021, 8:17 am

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This 4-minute video by animator Steve Cutts is a very good critique of where we find ourselves in our modern capitalist society. I have worked for myself my whole life and benefited from the system but it does not stop me from seeing the flaws in our model of continuous consumption and unrestrained growth. Chasing the chimera of happiness with every new purchase or pill or drink swallowed. Not sure if Steve was thinking about the Boomtown Rats song when …

#CargoOfBricks: Cooperation, looking outwards and maximising Northern Ireland’s advantage…

Mick Fealty on July 8, 2020, 7:02 am

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Episode Seven of #CargoOfBricks, is with Willie McCarter a man who brought Fruit of the Loom in from the US to expand his family business at a time when the Troubles were at their height and brought skilled jobs to both sides of the border: In it Willie tells us: In the early 80s, with high-interest rates as governments tried to get inflation under control, the business was getting crushed on cost and prices. With IDA support, they looked for …

Northern Ireland’s business community has united as never before to make sure it is heard and the consequences of crashing out of the EU next March are understood.

Soapbox on November 29, 2018, 12:12 pm

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Stephen Kelly is the Chief Executive of Manufacturing NI, he writes for Slugger about why the Withdrawal Agreement from the European Union should be supported. A community has found it voice. Reluctant, yet determined, Northern Ireland’s business community has united as never before, to make sure is heard, and that the consequences of crashing out of the EU next March are understood. Some may have been frustrated that Northern Ireland’s businesses and their representatives have been too quiet, but we …

Half of NI firms postponed or cancelled investment plans due to Brexit…

Brian O'Neill on August 20, 2018, 11:27 am

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A survey by AIB bank shows that half of NI firms postponed or cancelled investment plans due to Brexit. As a business person myself I know in uncertain times you keep your money in your pocket to see how the future will pan out. You put off taking on new staff, you hold off on opening new premises, you don’t buy new equipment etc. But really caution does not just apply to business people but to any sensible consumer which is why we …

How the Northern Ireland Government is destroying its own cities and towns…

Patrick Murdock on June 13, 2018, 4:07 pm

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House of Fraser, with the announcement last week that it is to close 31 Stores across the UK, is just the latest in a long line of retailers which have either gone to the wall, or are scaling back their high street retail operations through store closures. Business rates are effectively a trading tax which businesses have to pay to have a high street presence, which in the era of online retail, puts bricks and sticks retailers at a tremendous …

Another curious Brexit side effect. Companies may get grants to move jobs out of the UK…

Brian O'Neill on April 27, 2017, 3:40 pm

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Nestlé has announced that they are to axe 300 UK jobs and move Blue Riband biscuit production to Poland. More than likely this is about cost saving and has nothing to do with Brexit but it does introduce some interesting questions. Under EU rules member countries are not allowed to give subsidies that encourage companies to move jobs from one member state to another. So in the Nestlé example, Poland could not give grants to Nestlé. You can only grant …

Why are [some] Irish politicians so reluctant to take Vestager’s €13 Billion and run?

Mick Fealty on September 2, 2016, 10:13 am

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So today should be interesting in Dublin. It should be a make your mind up day for the Irish Cabinet to decide on whether Ireland should, as a member state, challenge Tuesday’s ruling of European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager. It could fall in several ways. It may force the government to assemble a water tight argument on the politically embarrassing tax justice issues involved in launching an appeal, or perhaps defer the pain by looking to the court to seek clarification …

From selling fancy hankies to selling kids TV around the world – Sixteen South open new offices

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on June 29, 2016, 4:31 pm

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130 YEARS AGO One Clarence Street exported fancy hankies around the world, Today Sixteen South are creating kids TV shows that are sold to more than one hundred countries. Today they celebrated the opening of their new offices in Belfast, though a cloud of Brexit hangs over their industry.

We can already see a post-Brexit economy emerging. It’s grim.

Gerry Lynch on June 14, 2016, 9:30 pm

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Here’s a confusing financial press headline from today: German 10-year sovereign bond yields turn negative for first time. What does that mean in plain English: it means traders are so worried about what the UK economy would look like post-Brexit, they’re pulling their money out of the UK, and actually paying the German government to let them lend it money. Read that sentence again to realise how deep the fear is. You’ve heard the scaremongering. This is what the reality …

Sunday Times Fast Track 100; Northern Ireland Nil the rest of the UK 100

Patrick Murdock on December 7, 2015, 10:45 am

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The tone of this report yet again reinforces the points that many of us have made time and time again on Slugger that there is something fundamentally wrong with our cultural attitude to business that is stopping our economy it it’s in tracks and we need to face up to what this is and correct it.

Alternative Ulster; Rebuilding Northern Ireland’s Economy. Feedback from Coworking Europe 2015, Milan, Italy

Patrick Murdock on November 13, 2015, 1:04 pm

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Many of you who know me will be well aware of the frustrations I have encountered on my return to Northern Ireland, observing the Assembly being constantly distracted by legacy issues and failing to deliver a business strategy that will help our economy grow and bring economic prosperity for future generations. The Northern Ireland Assembly has prioritised 12.5% Corporation Tax as its main fiscal lever to kick start (in three years time) private sector growth in the Northern Ireland economy. …

How local startup 24Tees used crowdfunding to get their business off the ground…

Soapbox on August 24, 2015, 3:01 pm

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Two months back, myself and another student at Ulster University launched a crowdfunding campaign, successfully raising £6000 to get our business off the ground. Since then we’ve launched the business in full and are seeing it grow every day. It’s given us more than a few sleepless nights from its conception to now, but it’s undoubtedly been a great learning experience. My friend-turned business partner originally had the idea back in November of last year. He subscribed to a popular …

Forget Corporation Tax. Our high business rates are putting local shops out of business and killing our town centres…

Patrick Murdock on August 17, 2015, 7:11 am

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Many of you may remember this famous 1980 Queen Hit, a song about dying in a gunfight, but in 2015 could be equally interpreted as a commentary on the death of retail and commercial businesses located in all the Town and City Centres of Northern Ireland. Many commentators have given their opinions as to the demise of the traditional high street and suggested that it is due to changes in shopping habits, the growth of the internet, the growth of …

The Boal Car Parking Dispute with Belfast City Airport Sums up what is so wrong with the NI Economy

Patrick Murdock on July 31, 2015, 3:02 pm

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Belfast City Airport frontage

Only in Northern Ireland could a situation be allowed to arise where a private car park operator using a purpose built multi story car park, to run a car parking business is found to be in breach of planning law and is to be shut down because it is the ‘wrong type’ of car parking. Most ‘normal’ people in Northern Ireland think this decision is unfair, lacking in common sense, illogical, and goes against consumer interests. Northern Ireland is part …

Farewell to “Backwards Belfast”

W[r]ite Noise on January 18, 2015, 10:27 am

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According to Belfast Telegraph, local restaurateur Emma Bricknell is, apparently, leaving us for good. It’s not her, it’s us. We are ‘a laughing stock‘. We are ‘backwards’. She has found somewhere else, somewhere sunnier. Apparently the break up is long overdue. Bricknell is the owner of three city centre restaurants, two branches of Made in Belfast and Le Coop on Hill Street. I have been to Made in Belfast exactly twice. Personally I was not a fan. Neither was Joris …

I don’t rate business rates

Kris Nixon (Belfast Barman) on December 2, 2014, 4:53 pm

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It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a business in possession of a premises must be in want of customers and an extra few bills to pay. Every property in the land pays rates of some description, which is fair enough because there are a lot of things to pay for! Except…we still have to pay for lots of other things that the average household gets included in their lot. I can’ t necessarily speak for industries other than my …

Importance of Dissent: “The fool’s role is to speak truth to power…”

Mick Fealty on July 5, 2013, 7:56 am

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Interview with Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, of the Smurfitt Business School at UCD. He identifies three things to learn from the crisis: articulating the relationship between business and the wider society it operates within; Ireland’s overdependence on retail and construction and the need to build a more export led economy; and third the importance of dissent. Professor Ó hÓgartaigh’s presentation on the role of dissent is, at base, about understanding the utility of the fool within business… Here’s some of the …

Just three per cent of businesses are registered in NI’s second city…

Mick Fealty on May 25, 2012, 8:51 am

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The Londonderry Sentinel has some fascinating figures released by the DFP minister Sammy Wilson: New figures detailing the number of registered businesses in each constituency show there were only 2,205 in Londonderry in January. Only West Belfast (1,430) and North Belfast (2,185) had fewer whilst East Londonderry (3,900) and West Tyrone (5,095) had roughly twice as many as the Foyle constituency. And it notes: It follows the revelation in March that over 800 business premises in Londonderry lie desolate. There …

Big News. Innovation from the Executive

Brian Walker on March 31, 2012, 9:55 am

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Good to see Northern Ireland featuring on the UK national news agenda with a report on the “Tesco tax.,” (Today programme 7.25, Sammy and retail consortium rep interview). Despite the national coverage, inexplicably I can’t find news of the 1st April vesting date for the business charge on the local BBC News website. Old news locally perhaps? But at least the story’s appearance is a case of a good sell to the networks which more and more these days unilaterally exclude …

UK business lending slashed in face of lowered growth prospects…

Mick Fealty on February 14, 2012, 12:41 pm

| Readers 40

Paying down baby debt may have sounded like a good policy in opposition, but George Osborne’s intervention to try and get banks (those largely publicly funded institutions) to lend money in an economy that’s as close as Ireland to contracting again, is faltering… The Daily Mail reports lending to business is down by £10 Billion on last year… And Moody’s have put the UK on notice that its AAA rating is switched from positive to negative. They cite two primary …