2018 Evening Standard Business Awards: the nominees fighting for brand and deal of the year

Comic potential: Netflix’s deal for Millarworld ensures that comic adaptations such as Kick-Ass will appear on the streaming site
Evening Standard30 May 2018

This week, we take a detailed look at brands and deals which have got the City talking...

CONSUMER BUSINESS OF THE YEAR

When social media can propel consumer brands to iconic status in record time and send them crashing again, being a consumer brand is something of a tightrope walk. We take a look at some of the hottest brands on the High Street and online who are fighting it out.

Joe & the Juice: Founded by Kaspar Basse in 2002, Danish coffee shop chain Joe & the Juice has been able to launch into a space dominated by global names — Costa and Starbucks — by focusing on customer service and quality ingredients. In 15 years it has grown from one shop to 212 in 14 countries, with revenue more than doubling from $176 million (£130 million) to $396 million in the past four years.

Leon: Started in 2004 in London by John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby, who met while working at management consulting firm Bain, Leon provides healthy food which is also fast. Sales at the private equity-backed group increased by 7% on a same-store basis and 58% in total to £58 million last year, as it expanded outside London. Leon now has more than 50 restaurants and recently launched a new concept, based on Thai street food, at a site in Shaftesbury Avenue.

Amazon: Once just a bookseller, most people would probably now name Amazon as one of the world’s great consumer brands. The tech behemoth has been busy of late, buying upmarket grocer Whole Foods for $14 billion, and stepping up its fashion plans, putting out no fewer than seven own-label clothing brands. Its Alexa device is also fast becoming lots of people’s new best friend as buyers around the globe rush to put the digital assistant into their home.

Charlotte Tilbury: The eponymous make-up brand was launched in 2013 by the British make-up artist to the stars. Having spent more than 20 years in the industry, Charlotte Tilbury’s knowledge and sense of showbiz has helped her brand to flourish in the past two years. Her products are now available in this country, America and the Netherlands, not to mention 37 other countries online. Her business has also won more than 120 awards since its launch.

DEAL OF THE YEAR

A blockbuster year for deals made this one of the most hotly-contested categories. Advisers have been raking in eye-watering fees as the City gets its mojo back after absorbing the shockwaves of Brexit. We look at the deals transforming not only their businesses, but their wider industries.

Nex-CME: Michael Spencer’s £3.9 billion deal to sell the Nex electronic trading business he founded to US rival CME is a landmark move at a knockout price. Combining the businesses will create a dominant player in the $500 billion-a-day US Treasuries market. Spencer, the former Conservative Party treasurer who first brought his Icap empire to the stock market two decades ago, will stay with the group as a special adviser for at least two years.

Tesco-Booker: Tesco’s £4 billion takeover of food wholesaler Booker completed in March, opening a new chapter on the UK’s grocery wars and pushing Tesco’s market capitalisation to more than £20 billion. The deal takes Tesco into the wholesale market, and into sales for restaurants, pubs and clubs, at a time when the grocery market is stagnating. With this buying power, Tesco is back on the front foot.

GKN-Melrose: For such a controversial takeover, the £8 billion hostile acquisition of GKN by Melrose was wrapped up in just three months. Mutterings from politicians, warnings from unions and raging press headlines did not deter 52.4% of GKN shareholders voting for Melrose to take over the 250-year-old FTSE 100 automotive and engineering group.

Netflix-Millarworld: Last August’s acquisition of comic book firm Millarworld is an amazing tale of heroic entrepreneurialism and creative talent. Mark Millar started his comic book business — in which writers and artists share creation rights — 15 years ago. Now the US TV streaming giant has bought the company which created the Kick-Ass and Kingsman cartoon and film franchises for an estimated $50 million to $100 million, promising that superheroes, old and new, will be on our screens for a while to come.

The Evening Standard Business Awards, in association with Esme, will be held at Guildhall on June 27

Secure your table by contacting emma.mercer@esimedia.co.uk or 020 3615 2003