Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

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Business trends

Boyd Farrow rounds-up what’s happening in the business world across Europe

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Buying a doppelten cheeseburger?

Top American firms have for the first time ranked Germany as the top place in Europe to do business, according to the latest survey by The Boston Consulting Group.

The study of 61 top US companies including Microsoft, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s – which have a combined turnover of €110bn and employ 250,000 people in Germany – placed the country ahead of destinations in Eastern Europe, as well as the UK, France and Spain. Microsoft’s and McDonald’s German headquarters are in Munich; Coca-Cola’s are in Berlin.

BCG’s head in Germany, Christian Veith said: “Clients are demanding more security in these troubled times and companies are placing particular emphasis on high quality products and processes”.

Meanwhile, a massive 86% of those polled said they believed American-German economic relations would improve under President Obama. One-third of US firms said they intended to increase their investment in Germany this year, with 17% predicting a reduction.

Nevertheless, the ongoing financial crisis has clearly affected the corporate mood: 41% of companies said they planned to reduce their workforces in Germany in 2009, compared with 16% in 2008.

Radar
Reading economic signs

Bizarrely, as the recession rips through the media, the oldest mass medium of all is holding up well. The number of books sold in France rose 2% last December from a year earlier and was up 2.4% in January, according to Livres Hebdo. In terms of revenue, the gains have been even bigger: 4% in January and 7% in February, according to market researcher GfK. The trend has been similar in Germany, where the number of books sold rose 2.3% in January, according to the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, a trade organisation. Analysts say many other European markets have also shown gains. In the UK, however, book sales have been slightly less robust, falling by a fraction of 1% last year, according to Nielsen BookScan.

Traditionally, economic downturns have created opportunities for publishers. Penguin was founded in 1935, during the Great Depression, by the publisher Allen Lane, who wanted to sell quality books for roughly the price of a pack of cigarettes. Ironically The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith has recently been a big seller for Penguin, with sales rising to 12,000 in the UK last year from about 200 in previous years.

Buzzing about Mountain profi ts

Much has been written about how hemlines correspond with economic confidence, but less has been written about the cocooning phenomenon. This might explain the sartorial escalation of Moncler as its feather-filled jackets have descended from the mountains to urban hotspots. While the French heritage garments claim to protect wearers from harsh winters, they’re also proving particularly recession-resistant for its current Milan-based owner.

Although Italy’s trend-setters zeroed in on Moncler in the 1980s, the brand really arrived in 1999 with its first collection from designer Remo Ruffini, who bought a 51% stake in the company in 2003. Bankrolled by the Carlyle Group, Moncler recently opened stores in Milan, Gstaad and Hong Kong.

Everywhere you go you can see the Japanese nylon in attention-grabbing colours. Annual sales, meanwhile, have been puffed up from €35m in 2003 to €150m in 2008. Last year Moncler launched a luxury Gamme Rouge line, collaborating with top designers. In a burst of humour usually absent from the Paris spring fashion shows, Gamme Rouge unveiled down jackets printed to look like fur – perfect for these chastened times, darling.

Drawing board Brussels sprouts

The Belgian authorities and the European Commission have unveiled plans to revamp Brussels’ main EU district, long plagued by gridlocked traffic and construction sites.

French architect Christian de Portzamparc won a competition to revamp the European quarter, focusing on Rue de la Loi, which cuts through the heart of the neighbourhood and is lined mainly by modern office buildings, including the EC headquarters.

“With 80% office space and not enough housing, the European quarter is still seen by many as an urban ghetto,” the European Commission vice-president, Siim Kallas, told journalists at the announcement. “If we can move away from an ‘all office space’ concept and find a strong urban and architectural project, we demonstrate our high ambitions for the capital of Europe.”

The guiding principle of any future development along the road would be fewer but eye-catching “flagship” buildings, which “would give a positive image to the quarter”. The minister-president of Brussels, Charles Picqué, said a tramline could even be built to reduce traffic and transform a heavily polluted thoroughfare into “an open street” with public and green spaces. The work could begin in mid-2011, although it may take “at least 15 years” to enable the city to function as usual.

Radar - Coke zero tolerance

Coca-Cola has been chastised once more by Sweden’s advertising watchdog, ERK, for a commercial that portrayed women as “pure sex objects”. The internet ad for Coke Zero features a woman wearing jeans and a top. If questions are answered in a certain way, she stands by a bed wearing only her underwear.

Defending itself, Coca-Cola said the Zero website was supposed to create an image of how life should be, a world in which “weekends never end”. It admitted the site is “boorish” but denied it’s insulting. Rather “the woman is portrayed as a self-reliant person with an obvious right to place demands in her relationships”. However, ERK found the advert insulting to women in general. Moreover, it was deemed to “preserve outdated views on gender roles and [be] humiliating for both women and men”.

Last December, ERK ruled against another Coke ad featuring a man breaking up with his girlfriend, who then says she understands because “there are so many girls to choose from”. The man leaves the restaurant in the company of four barely dressed women.

Growing gains Special agent

Fifteen years after its first shop opened in London’s Soho, the upmarket lingerie brand Agent Provocateur is planning global, er, domination. The company – co-founded by Joe Corré, the son of Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren – has reported turnover up 8% for the year to March and wants to double the size of its portfolio to more than 100 stores and concessions by 2011. Agent Provocateur currently has 45 outlets worldwide. Chief executive Garry Hogarth says the focus will be on the Far East and Eastern European cities such as Saint Petersburg.

As well as broadening its geographical reach, the brand plans to branch into new areas such as furniture, bed linen and footwear. The emphasis will be on a few iconic pieces, such as the perfect thigh-high boot. The company won’t be going too mainstream, though. The Pirate Provocateur ad campaign for the spring collection, in which Helena Christensen seduces a drunken captain, is certainly no Disney theme-park ride. Nor is the new bridal lingerie ad, featuring Karen Elson.“I don’t want to dumb it down and take away Agent Provocateur’s sexy, edgy side,” insists Hogarth. Phew.

In the news…. Crans Montana Forum

Now in its 20th year, the Crans Montana Forum takes place from 24-27 June in Brussels. This unique event, dedicated to promoting international cooperation, brings together businesses and senior government officials from around the world. www.cmf.ch

Not really… Friends

The Swiss are currently failing to live up to their billing as the least emotional people in Europe after being driven cuckoo by the aspersions cast by some of their neighbours over the country’s perceived tolerant stance on tax evasion.

Public enemy number one is the German finance minister, Peer Steinbrück. He threatened to “whip them” like children, and has compared them with Indians knuckling under to the financial cavalry after Switzerland, responding to international pressure, finally agreed to loosen its banking secrecy laws.

Now Hans Kaufmann, a member of the Swiss parliament with the right-wing SVP, has demanded a boycott of German cars. Swiss newspapers are also full of seething letters along the lines of: “How much longer will it be before Switzerland officially punches Steinbrück in the mouth? He ought to solve Germany’s problems first.” Another reader writes witheringly: “None of these disparaging remarks can cover up the fact that Steinbrück is a total failure as finance minister in Germany.”

Upgrade your trip Writing on the wall

Many Berlin hotels are running ingenious special offers to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November. Surely the most enticing, however, is the one from The Westin Grand.

A section of the original wall, which until 1989 stood in southern Berlin, has been in front of the hotel on Friedrichstrasse since 9 January. The one-metre wide, 3-7 metres high, 2.7-tonnes piece was “redesigned” by artist Jacob Wagner and titled Metropolis. All guests who book the Westin’s Fall of the Berlin Wall package, which is valid until 30 November, may take a hammer and chisel to the concrete and chip out a piece to take home with them. The package includes two nights at the hotel and a map to guide guests along the route of the wall. See westin.com for details.

There may be good news, though, for anyone who can’t take up this offer. The joke going around Germany is that if the economy worsens, East Berliners will soon start building a new wall.

Traffic report Northern shining lights

For the third year running, Denmark and Sweden hold the top two slots in the Global Information Technology Report 2008-2009 by the World Economic Forum, with Finland, Iceland and Norway not far behind.

The rankings are based on 68 criteria, ranging from press freedom to educational achievement and broadband penetration. The top countries have spent big to develop information infrastructures and are also continuing with policies to spur economic development, including support for higher education, commitment to research and legal frameworks that make it easier to launch new businesses and protect intellectual property.

The Nordic countries all boast favourable regulation, an emphasis on maths and science education, and a long history of eco-friendly initiatives. Government investment in the 1990s helped build strong educational systems and drive penetration of mobile and internet usage. Yet even they face difficulties, including a shortage of engineers. Fewer students, especially women, are pursuing science careers.

The other countries in the top 10 are Singapore, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada and the US.