In Numbers: Cineworld awakens 10.9 Percentage growth in box-office revenues enjoyed by Cineworld, Europe's second-largest cinema group, in the first half of 2015. Admissions rose in all territories with the exception of Slovakia, where they mustn't be all that keen on Jurassic World.
12.9 Percentage rise in retail revenues at Cineworld over the period, as cinemagoers’ outlays on popcorn, nachos and pick ’n’ mix all added up nicely for the chain.
1,927 Number of screens the expanding company has across Europe (at 208 sites), which should be just about enough screens for it to glean astronomical cash out of anticipated record-breaker Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens later this year. Image of the week: Gherkin girl Damien Hirst's larger-than-life statue Charity (2002-2003), which has been installed opposite the Gherkin building in London's Square Mile, is modelled on the charity collection boxes once found outside local chemists in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s. Its display is part of a public art exhibition called Sculpture in the City, which launched yesterday, and is a chance for whichever millionaires, billionaires and tourists who happen to be left in London to stumble upon some thought-provoking art with such uplifting titles as Organisms of Control #8 (by Keita Miyazaki), Days of Judgement – Cats 1 & 2 (by Laura Ford) and O My Friends, There are No Friends (by Sigalit Landau). Photograph: Peter Nicholls/Reuters The Lexicon: Citicoin Global banking giant Citigroup is testing its own Bitcoin-style cryptocurrency, which it is calling Citicoin. Kenneth Moore, head of Citigroup's Innovations Lab, told the International Business Times that Citi wants to be at the forefront of cryptocurrency technologies so that it can "exploit the opportunities within it". Citigroup has also been busy this week coming up with its own thoughtful five-step rescue plan for Greece, which thankfully makes no mention of Citicoin or its ilk, because things aren't quite that bad yet. Now it's just down to the world's financial regulators to start feverishly recruiting for cryptocurrency supervision squads. They're already on it. Aren't they? Getting to know: Madame Gil If you're in the market for some "magic cheese", Gilberte Van Erpe, aka Madame Gil, is your woman – or at least she was before a French court jailed her this week for three years. Van Erpe (74) conned thousands of Chileans into buying a kit that made "magic cheese" they could allegedly sell back to French cosmetics firms. Victims of the scam paid €369 for the kit and were told their homemade goop was a prized ingredient used in luxury skin-whitening creams. It was, in fact, a pyramid scheme of massive proportions – by the time it was unravelled in 2006, Van Erpe's company Fermex Chile had some 20 branches and an estimated 5,500 people had become ensnared in "The Case of the Magic Cheese". Meanwhile, the substance rotted away in a Chilean warehouse, entirely unwanted by the likes of L'Oréal.
The list: Marks & Spencer fashion woes M&S is a company that does "a very good impression of running up a down escalator" according to retail analyst Nick Bubb, with clothing sales at the group going into reverse in the last quarter. You can't please everybody all of the time – certainly not these womenswear critics.
1 Size matters "There was a time when a 12 was a 12," Muriel Conway, a former clothes designer for an M&S supplier, told its annual meeting this week.
2 Bad dream “Your patterns look like somebody’s had a bad dream, got out of bed and thrown paint at a canvas,” shareholder Janet Girsman said. (Isn’t that last season’s paint-splatter trend?)
3 Tough competition “When I talk to the girls at work . . . they tell me they shop at Primark,” television presenter Kirstie Allsopp has noted. Ouch.
4 Crying shame “I could weep when I see what’s in stores today.” Muriel Conway again, prefacing some sharp criticisms of M&S’s quality control.
5 Hero product M&S chief executive Marc Bolland fought back with: "The suede skirt has been very successful for us."
