Trading gossip - 4/7/07

Jul 4 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

CONGRATULATIONS to the new chief executive of The Mersey Partnership, Lorraine Rogers, below, for landing such a high-profile appointment – albeit on a part-time basis – and for winning a gong at the Merseyside Women of the Year Awards last week.

Fans of Tranmere Rovers, where Lorraine is, of course, the executive chairman, will no doubt need reassuring that her new role won’t dilute her commitment to the Prenton Park club.

They will also have been highly amused, we’re sure, by her comment, as she picked up the award for sport and leisure, that she finally had something shiny to take back for Tranmere’s trophy cabinet.

AS YOU may have read elsewhere in today’s Daily Post, coach operator National Express (immortalised in the Divine Comedy song of the same name), has met Liverpool City Council with a view to doing its bit for Capital of Culture.

A warm welcome is assured from the authority which is a big fan of discouraging car use in favour of public transport.

Its annual European Car Free Day, which involves the temporary closure of Castle Street, is a particular hit with motorists who revel in the chance to listen to their car radios for a little longer in the morning as they sit in huge traffic jams.

National Express itself is doing very well indeed, to the relief of investors who feared low-cost rival Megabus would eat into profits.

Should Megabus begin to affect revenues, shareholders will know exactly who to blame – their own chief executive, Paul Bunting, the man who set up the operation when at rival Stagecoach.

LIVERPOOL’S new swish Malmaison Hotel is clearly too cool for school.

Management at the waterfront outlet have decided to take their sophisticated ambience to a whole new level by appointing a “Director of Vibe”.

The man in the role is one Gary Sanderson, and we can’t help wondering what qualifications one would need for such a job – and is there a course we can enrol on?

Clearly, to hold down such a position you have to be a pretty cool cat, although Gary’s colleagues don’t seem convinced as they apparently refer to him as a cross between a “slim Matt Lucas and a stringy Mr Bean”.