Marriott and Ian Schrager plan global boutique hotel chain
Boutique hotel pioneer Ian Schrager has joined forces with hotel giant Marriott in a £2b joint venture. Schrager – whose exclusive portfolio includes the Royalton, Paramount and Morgans in the USA as well as St Martin’s Lane and Sanderson in London – is now looking to appeal to a larger audience on a larger scale. Next month, he and Marriott chief executive and chairman JW “Bill” Marriott Jnr will reveal the brand name and the first 15 sites for their joint venture. Each of the 150- to 250-bedroom Schrager-designed hotels will have a different look, be owned by private developers and run by Marriott except for marketing, which will be handled by Schrager along with the room service and the destination restaurants and restaurants bars and room. Early openings will include London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, Rome, Naples, Mumbai, Mexico and the USA. Overall, 100 hotels are planned and, by 2012, there could be as many as 200 venues, worth £2b. – The Sunday Times, 11 November

Michelin-star Scots chefs both plan new cookery schools
Scottish Michelin star-winning chefs Martin Wishart and Nick Nairn are both opening new cookery schools. Edinburgh-based Wishart (who worked as a commis chef with Nairn when he ran the Michelin-star Braeval restaurant in Aberfoyle) will next month open his first school in Bonnington Road. It will teach up to eight amateur cooks a day, with the £130 daily rate £50 lower than at Nairn’s current establishment. Ready Steady Cook TV star Nairn (who closed his Glasgow restaurant to focus on the cookery school he opened at Port of Menteith near Stirling in 2000) has revealed plans for a new £1.5m school at Inchmarlo near Aberdeen. He is also looking for new premises for another school in the "south Edinburgh" area. - Scotland On Sunday, 11 November

Commonwealth games worth £1b to Glasgow
Glasgow’s success in winning the Commonwealth Games for 2014 could net the city a total £1b in extra revenue, according to a new assessment by The Herald based on Manchester’s success in hosting the Games in 2002. Although early estimates ranged from £81m to £2b, The Herald survey - and former lord provost of Glasgow Alex Mosson  - settled on £1b as a realistic goal. The 2002 games attracted £670m of investment into Manchester, along with one million visitors who spent £18m in shops, hotels, bars and restaurants over 10 days. During the year, the games drew 18 million people to the North-west and put £6b into the economy. Glasgow tourist officials believe the Games will help their goal of increasing visitor figures by 60%, which would boost tourist revenues from £700m to £1bn and support up to 40,000 jobs. - The Herald, 11 November

Government to probe security of food supply
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has instructed the Cabinet Office’s strategy unit to investigate the security of Britain's food supply amid fears that changing weather patterns, increasing take-up of bio fuel crops and the growing demand for food from China and India heralds the end of the era of cheap prices. The unit will deliver the findings of its investigation into the future of food production in March. The unit will focus on key diet and economic trends before asking industry and NG0s to respond before the end of the year. - The Observer, 11 November

By Angela Frewin

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