Food and Events

BAA, the airports operator, yesterday reported a rebound in retail sales, saying it had tackled the downturn in airport shopping following the abolition of duty-free purchases in Europe. The company also indicated that the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions had quietly dropped its inquiry into competition at airports. An adverse finding could have led to a break-up of BAA.In a reference to the recent train crash at Hatfield, Mike Hodgkinson, the company's chief executive, said: "We have seen in recent days how fragmentation in other industries has been a disaster."If you want a world-class industry, you don't hack it around The inquiry is done. I don't think we'll hear any more about it."BAA was forced into a profits warning last October, after the abolition of duty-free shopping within Europe hit its retail sales unexpectedly hard.Yesterday it reported that, for the three months to 30 September, the first like-for like comparison since duty free shopping ended on 1 July last year, retail profits grew 14 per cent to £132m. For the six months to 30 September, the figure was 1 per cent ahead at £245m.Jonathan Wober, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, said: "The retail problems are largely in the past. It was a question of restoring confidence and that's basically what they've done now."BAA revealed that, for the half-year, it lost £4.5m on its Eurotunnel shopping concession. BAA is suing the operator of the Channel Tunnel for allegedly misrepresenting passenger growth expectations The number of passengers using the tunnel has fallen. BAA expects a court hearing early next year.At its airports, UK passenger numbers grew 6.6 per cent in the half-year to 69.5 million.

Pre-tax profits, before exceptionals, increased 5.2 per cent to £322m BAA shares closed up 19p at 583p.. Cable & Wireless, the telecoms company, yesterday announced a £1bn investment in Japan to create a national optical fibre network that will take it into the country's domestic business communications market for the first time. Cable & Wireless, the telecoms company, yesterday announced a £1bn investment in Japan to create a national optical fibre network that will take it into the country's domestic business communications market for the first time. The Japanese telecoms market is only just starting to deregulate, so C&W will come up against the dominant position of the former state monopoly Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT).The move, the single biggest investment by a UK company in the Japanese telecoms industry, will build on C&W's acquisition last year of control of International Digital Communications, a Japanese operator which carries international business traffic to and from Japan.Graham Wallace, chief executive of C&W, said: "We are in a unique position, among foreign operators, in Japan IDC is the key. The economics works for us because we're not starting from scratch."Mr Wallace added that, as Japan is a densely populated country, with a business community very concentrated in Tokyo and Osaka, constructing a national network was relatively inexpensive.C&W was a founding shareholder in IDC, with a 18 per cent stake. It gained complete control of it last year, after a hotly contested takeover battle.C&W will invest the money over five years. Over that period, it aims to grow its Japanese revenues from £300m a year to £1bn.

Japan is the world's second-biggest market for telecoms services.C&W will offer internet and data services to corporate customers in Japan and has targeted 5 per cent of that market by 2005, which would make it the number two player in the sector.Mr Wallace said: "We would be crazy to go up against NTT across the board, but in the focused market that we are targeting, I'm confident."C&W shares closed down 16p to 964p yesterday. Analysts said there was some concern about the size of the Japanese investment and its relatively long pay-back time.It compares, for instance, with the £2.2bn that C&W had previously earmarked, to cover 1999-2002, for investment in the US, UK and international links.Mr Wallace said that his company was much better placed in Japan than its international rivals AT&T and British Telecoms, which each have a 15 per cent stake in Japan Telecom."Japan Telecom is not focused and they can't dictate, as we can with IDC, its network architecture," he said.C&W said that although Japan was ahead of Europe and the US in mobile technology, in fixed-line services, the West was more advanced. C&W now plans to bring these more sophisticated fixed-line products and services to the Japanese domestic business market.. It might be viewed as the official supplier to the nation's sweet tooth, but the chocolate brand Cadbury's has concluded there is more to life than Crunchie and Curly Wurly bars and begun a project to woo the nation's chocolate snobs. It might be viewed as the official supplier to the nation's sweet tooth, but the chocolate brand Cadbury's has concluded there is more to life than Crunchie and Curly Wurly bars and begun a project to woo the nation's chocolate snobs. The company plans a chain of upmarket chocolate cafés, to be called Café Cadbury, with fancy truffles rather than chocolate Buttons likely to top the menu.Traditionalists may scoff, but Cadbury is unabashed. It opened the first Café Cadbury in Bath three weeks ago, andclearly hopes that, if things go well, it will be able to cash in on the success of chains such as Starbucks and Coffee Republic.A Cadbury's spokesman did not agree that, alongside the coffee competitors, the name might seem a bit old fashioned. He said the company hoped to adapt its brand to "a modern, contemporary, indulgent environment - taking the concept of selling chocolate into the new millennium".Business in Bath has been "fantastic", he said.

If the success continues, Cadbury's plans to open more cafés in towns and cities. Decoration at the chocoholic's paradise is in Bournville purple, the location is choice - over three floors of a listed building - and much of the fare is a cut above the Wispa experience. The company has developed 50 new lines, including little sorbets coated in plain chocolate and ice-cream covered in melted Dairy Milk. The best sellers have been the new range of chocolate drinks.If the concept succeeds, it will be taken as further proof that Britons are chocolate-addicted. Only the Swiss match British consumption, now at four and a half bars of Dairy Milk per person per week.

The rest of the world is way behind.In Britain, 90 per cent of people buy chocolate at some time during the year Scots eat most and Londoners least. But, statistics show, women who buy chocolate give half of it away, while men eat what they buy.Overall, the British chocolate market is worth almost £4bn a year, and Cadbury's is the leading brand. Its Dairy Milk bar is described as a "megabrand" and accounts for more than 5 per cent of all chocolate sold So it is no surprise the company wants to do a Starbucks. The spokesman acknowledges Cadbury's is alert to "burgeoning café society" in Britain - the coffee bar market is worth £500m.Others are following the Starbucks route.