CITY WHISPERS: Simmer down! Dragons’ Den sparks a vegan food fight

Last week there was a row on the British start-up scene with a ready-meal company claiming another company was trying to cash in on its appearance on BBC 1’s Dragons’ Den.

Hilary Kennedy, founder of vegan meal kit maker Planthood, accused rival Simmer of using footage of her pitch in the Den last year on LinkedIn.

Simmer, she said, had taken to advertising his own food on social media.

“It hurts to see another company steal that hard work and sacrifice and profit from it,” Kennedy wrote, adding that she was “shocked” by the ads.

Simmer founder Simmy Dhillon issued a mea culpa on Friday, admitting that “mistakes had been made” but saying the ads were intended as “harmless fun” and were quickly removed once the issue came to light.

But in a sharp criticism of his critics, Dhillon wrote: “If I have a problem with a fellow entrepreneur, I don’t drag their name through the mud.”

BBC no longer has contact with ‘oop North’

When it moved to Salford a few years ago the aim was to bring the BBC more into contact with business ‘oop North’.

So there were red faces last week when one of the presenters of Radio 4’s Today program questioned Co-op boss Shirine Khoury-Haq about ‘job losses’ at the eponymous bank in Manchester.

“It’s no longer part of the group,” she gently reminded the hapless hacker.

Oops!

Is Daniel Kretinsky’s coal empire going green?

He is best known for his interests in Royal Mail and West Ham Utd, but Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky is also a coal baron.

But last week there were signs that the tycoon’s coal-black empire could be turning green.

On Wednesday, its EP Corporate Group said five of its coal-fired power stations in Germany and Slovakia had been closed, eliminating carbon dioxide emissions by 15 million tonnes a year.

Kretinsky, dubbed the Czech Sphinx for his inscrutable investment approach, previously bought up fossil fuels cheaply to cash in on a rush to decarbonize.

So what prompted the change of heart? The mystery has yet to be solved.

Sutton Harbor in feud with Plymouth council

Development disputes are a national pastime in Britain, or so it seems for AIM-listed property group Sutton Harbor.

Last week it alerted the market to a long-running row with Plymouth City Council over its ownership of the city’s abandoned airport.

The council previously said Sutton had breached lease agreements for the 113-hectare site and threatened to take over the land.

But on Wednesday, Sutton, who plans to build homes there, demanded the city council withdraw its notices.

The company is likely hoping to resolve the dispute quickly and revive its share price, which has fallen more than 30 percent so far this year.

One to watch.

Employee: Patrick Tooher