Rooney Anand named Lloyds Business Awards Leader of the Year: Greene King chief executive Rooney Anand has been named The Ashridge Executive Education Leader of the Year at the 2016 Lloyds Bank National Business Awards held at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane last night. Presented by the BBC’s Louise Minchin, the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards, which is organised by UBM EMEA, welcomed former Leader of the House of Commons Lord William Hague as headline speaker. Anand’s award category recognises the personal imprint of the UK’s most high profile leaders and industry champions from the private, public and third sectors. The finalists were judged on their achievements as business leaders over the last 18 months, and their personal achievements over the course of their career. Handmade Burge Co won the Lloyds Bank Small to Medium-Sized Business of the year. Hotel Chocolat won the Lloyds Bank Mid-market Business of the Year award. Tim Hinton, head of Mid Markets and SME Banking at Lloyds Banking Group, said: “We’re proud to support the National Business Awards which celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of British businesses and the people leading them. Innovative and thriving businesses such as these are vital for the success of the UK so that we can continue to create jobs and grow the economy.”

Tom Aikens to open in Birmingham next month: Agent Shelley Sandzer has acted on behalf of landlords Brockton Capital and Milligan to secure Tom’s Kitchen at Birmingham’s, The Mailbox. The new 3,619 square foot restaurant is due to open in December and is the first Tom’s Kitchen site in the UK outside of the capital. Aikens currently operates five restaurants in London and one in Istanbul. Located in the Urban Room, on Level 2 of the Mailbox development, the modern British brasserie has been designed by B3 Designers with space for 96 covers, as well as offering to two private dining rooms and a bar. In addition to the restaurant, a Tom’s Kitchen Deli will serve visitors to the Urban Room, offering an array of affordable and express homemade food for guests on the go. Simon Samuels, partner at Brockton Capital, joint owners of the Mailbox, said: “Our strategy for the Mailbox has always been to bring world-class names to Birmingham, curating an exciting retail mix complemented by an innovative food and beverage offer.” Tom Aikens added: “Birmingham is a vibrant and bustling city with a thriving food scene. There is already a wonderful array of restaurants in the city, and I believe that Tom’s Kitchen will offer an exciting new option for diners in The Mailbox development”.

British Land reports 16.4% increase in underlying profit: British Land has reported a 16.4% increase in underlying profit to £199m in the first six months of its financial year. Chief executive Chris Grigg said: “We have a range of tactical levers to address the evolving political and economic uncertainties, but our strategy, which is based on long term trends, remains unchanged. We will continue to create places that are aligned with modern lifestyles and respond to changing consumer behaviour. This means owning and operating places where we can control the broader environment, employing our placemaking skills and exploiting our mixed-use expertise to drive long-term performance. We believe that this differentiates our properties from the wider market, attracting a broader range of occupiers. In this environment, we see quality of space becoming ever more important to occupiers and that our strategy positions our assets to capture a greater share of demand. Our level of activity in the half has been better than expected immediately following the referendum. We are pleased that this, along with the decisions we made in positioning the business, have contributed to a 16.4% increase in underlying profit to £199 million. This reflects like-for-like income growth of 3.4% driven by our asset management and placemaking activities, as well as further reductions in our finance and operating costs. Since the referendum, we have seen differing dynamics in our markets with leasing momentum maintained in Retail and signs of more caution amongst occupiers in Offices. Overall, we completed 769,000 sq ft of lettings and renewals across the portfolio on average 11.6% ahead of ERV, resulting in occupancy of 98% and an average lease term of nine years. In Retail, the referendum has, as yet, had no discernible impact on occupier demand and letting activity in our portfolio. In total, we let or renewed 656,000 sq ft of space on average 12.9% ahead of ERV. In the multi-let portfolio, we let or renewed 373,000 sq ft, more than in the same period last year, on average 12.2% ahead of ERV. Within this, we were pleased to attract some new occupiers to our line-up that we have been targeting as well as meeting demand for additional space from our long standing retail partners. These successes reflect both our placemaking activity to improve environments and customer experience on the ground, and our enhanced data and marketing capabilities which help us attract new occupiers. It has been a challenging period for some parts of the retail market, with consumer confidence initially dipping and then recovering in the period since the referendum. Reflecting this, footfall and sales were both down for the six months across the wider market, by -2.3% and -2.1% respectively, but our portfolio continued to outperform with footfall marginally up (+0.1%, 240 bps ahead of the market) and sales modestly down (-0.2%, 190 bps ahead of the market). Within reported sales, there has been mixed performance across the sectors with fashion and department stores weaker, partly due to unseasonal weather, and homewares, health and beauty, and food and beverage continuing to perform strongly. The largest opportunity in our pipeline is at Canada Water where we will create a new mixed-use urban centre for London. We continue to progress the masterplan and have had encouraging discussions with potential occupiers across all possible uses, which is informing our planning application, due to be submitted in 2017.”