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Articles by Oliver Guy
A British restaurant wave is taking over the US, one Scotch egg at a time
by OLIVER GUY WHEN King Charles III stepped up to the lectern in the US House of Representatives in April to deliver the second-ever joint address to Congress by a British monarch, he opened with an Oscar Wilde witticism: "We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language." The chamber erupted with knowing laughter. Behind the age-old joke, that centuries-long kinship still holds true.
A British Restaurant Wave Is Taking Over the US, One Scotch Egg at a Time
6:22 20 hours ago We Finally Understand The Ending Of The Sopranos Looper • 20h There is a lot that happens in "Made in America," the final episode of HBO's The Sopranos, but it's that ending that still has people talking to this day. Tony sits down for dinner with his family at Holsten's, "Don't Stop Believin'" starts playing on the jukebox, and a mysterious man in a Members Only jacket keeps looking over at Tony's table before walking into the bathroom.
A Former Soho House Executive Is Changing London's Restaurant Scene
Martin Kuczmarski is at the forefront of a trend in members-club-minded dining rooms. A view of Cadogan Place Park in Chelsea. Photographer: Chris Gorman/Getty Images Europe /Photographer: Chris Gorman/Getty (Bloomberg) — Martin Kuczmarski is accustomed to considering the needs of tens of thousands of customers when he thinks about hospitality. As the former chief operating officer of Soho House & Co Inc., he oversaw the group’s expansion from a handful of clubs to a globetrotting empire.
The Impossible-to-Book London Restaurant Singburi Is Back, in Shoreditch
The 8 best new London restaurant openings in August 2025 If this month’s new openings are anything to go by, London remains in the pocket of Big Pizza. This August also sees the return of one of east …
Over the past 12 months, customer conversations have shifted from focusing on generative AI to discussing agentic AI. This evolution reflects the growing recognition of agentic systems to augment AI’s potential to enhance business processes and drive innovation. But, as with every technology, working out where to start is fraught with difficulties.
Inside London's Top New Restaurant Hangout: The Buzzy One Club Row
(Bloomberg) — It’s no easy achievement for a restaurant to grab attention when its neighbors are some of the best dining rooms in town. But the brand-new One Club Row—in close proximity to Lyle’s, Brat and Rochelle Canteen in Shoreditch—has landed in the white-hot core of London’s dining scene, with a room full of martinis, steaks and, most important, buzz.
El nuevo restaurante de Gordon Ramsay estará en un rascacielos de Londres
Bloomberg — Han sido semanas muy ajetreadas para el chef Gordon Ramsay. Tuvo ocasión de rodar un anuncio de HexClad para el Super Bowl con el actor Pete Davidson y de preparar po' boys (emparedados) para los presentadores del gran juego de Nueva Orleans. Estas actividades ilustran su curiosa amalgama de papeles: en parte chef televisivo de juegos, en parte embajador de marca, generador de titulares y, en última instancia, importante figura de la industria del entretenimiento con poder estelar.
Enhancing supply chain efficiency in the retail and consumer goods industry with agentic systems
Retailers and consumer goods companies have faced constant change, particularly in supply chains. New sales and distribution models, such as online sales, omnichannel approaches, direct-to-consumer sales, and complex ecosystems, have evolved. External disruptions are frequent, with 90% of leaders reporting supply chain challenges in 20241. Supply chain agility and resiliency rely on fast and accurate decision making.
A Thrilling New London Restaurant Is Elevating the Thai Food Game
(Bloomberg) -- It’s been almost a quarter century since Nahm landed in London and helped change the city’s culinary landscape. The now-shuttered, Michelin-starred Thai restaurant from Australian-born David Thompson opened in 2001 and brought an immense amount of attention to the cuisine, finally giving the capital’s diners a high-end alternative to pad thai and red-yellow-green traffic-light curries.
A Famed Dining Room Returns to Harrods, Now With a £90 Centerpiece Pie
(Bloomberg) -- Over its 175 years, Harrods has specialized in retail theater. It boasted the UK’s first escalator, sold an alligator to Nöel Coward and hosted Michael Jackson’s annual Christmas shopping excursions. In the ensuing years, that bigger-is-better approach has led Harrods to turbocharge its famous Food Halls, making them arguably one of Europe’s finest epicurean shopping stops.
First Look at London's Hot New Dining Spot Barbary Notting Hill Original
The West London outpost is bigger and glossier than the destination Covent Garden original. Author of the article: Published Sep 12, 2024 • 4 minute read You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account. Article content (Bloomberg) — Before they got into the restaurant business in 2014, siblings Zoe and Layo Paskin were best known for their contributions to the UK club culture.
Inside London’s Buzziest New Restaurant: Ambassadors Clubhouse
(Bloomberg) -- The king of New York dining, Danny Meyer, once approvingly compared JKS Restaurants to a record label. The Union Square Hospitality Group founder was especially impressed by the UK-based JKS’s ability to sign emerging talent across multiple dining genres.
London’s Top New Restaurant Flashes Back to the Days of Princess Diana
(Bloomberg) -- Comebacks are often mawkish and ill-advised. Old flames inevitably disappoint. Yet Jeremy King, London’s preeminent restaurateur, is working to pull off and rekindle one at his new venue. Arlington, which officially opened in early March, marks King’s big return to London’s restaurant scene.
Why retail is more uncertain than ever - Software AG
Just as you thought things were going to get better after the Covid-19 pandemic, it appears that they’re about to get a whole lot worse. Inflation, skyrocketing energy prices, the cost-of-living crisis, global supply chain issues, food shortages and the war in Ukraine…. The combination of all these factors will mean that 2022, and most likely beyond, will be the most uncertain time retail has faced in a generation. Around the globe, people are already being impacted by rising costs.
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
The annual UN World Day for Safety and Health at Work was created to help call attention to preventing accidents and diseases at work. And nowhere is this more relevant than in the retail sector. Ordinarily, you would not think about your safety and health when walking into a retail store. In the past, it probably wasn’t top of your shopping list. But, in early 2020, all that changed with the arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Retailers need to prove their sustainability cred to grow sales
Distribution and Warehousing Food waste Logistics/Supply Chain Operations Packaging Sustainability Jan 27, 2022 Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the blog of Oliver Guy, Senior Director, Industry Solutions, Software AG. Retailers in 2022 will need to prove their sustainability commitments and establish their environmental, social and governance (ESG) credentials or lose business.
Retailers face a particularly difficult period as the new Covid variant increases nervousness amongst consumers
By Oliver Guy (pictured) Senior Director, Industry Solutions at Software AG Now, retailers face a particularly difficult period as the new Covid variant increases nervousness amongst consumers heading out to the high street. Online sales will make up for it to an extent. But ultimately, retailers must work even harder to deliver a harmonised experience which can dispel consumer anxieties over stock-outs, while creating a safe physical environment to shop in.
Thoughts on the new Sainsbury’s Just Walk Out London store — Retail Technology Innovation Hub
By Oliver Guy, Senior Director, Industry Solutions at Software AG When Amazon announced cashier free stores in 2016, I marvelled at its Just Walk Out technology with IoT enabled sensors. I also fully expected that Amazon would eventually offer the technology as a white-labelled service to other retailers. At the same time, I was also very conscious that what Amazon had really done was to blend existing technologies together – why had no one else done this?
What should businesses be doing? And how can they benefit in the long term?
By Oliver Guy (pictured) Senior Director, Industry solutions at Software AG With the threat of consumer price inflation stalking markets around the world, together with supply chain worries, consumers are already bringing planned purchases forward. Recent research shows that UK consumers have already started their Christmas shopping for the year, as sales at toys and children’s products retailers were up by 38% in October.
Retail sales sees 0.8% boost as consumers look to avoid worst of supply chain disruption & rising inflation
By Oliver Guy (pictured) Senior Director, Industry Solutions at Software AG The boost to retail footfall, up by 0.8% last month, is maybe being fuelled by shoppers’ worries about ongoing supply chain disruption, especially before the Christmas holidays. With the threat of consumer price inflation becoming reality, shoppers have been busy getting Christmas shopping done and dusted early to avoid stress in the run up to the festive season.
Sainsbury's opens walk out store
By Oliver Guy (pictured) Senior Director, Industry Solutions at Software AG With Sainsbury’s being the latest UK retailer to announce a walk-out store, it’s clear this technology is becoming more valued by the local retail industry. Powered by Amazon technology, this white-label service offering could even be scaled beyond smaller convenience stores to supermarkets eventually if the initial launch is successful.
GUEST COMMENT Retail must adapt to compete with the e-tail behemoths
Oliver Guy, senior director, industry solutions at Software AG It’s become a truism to say that the pandemic will have changed the way we shop forever. But the truly seismic change over the last 18 months hasn’t been in consumers’ buying behaviours; it’s been the retail industry’s realisation that its approach to e-tail (and delivery in particular) is no longer fit for purpose — if it ever was. But the answer is out there.
PEAK 2021 What the research says about how shoppers will buy online this Black Friday (or not)
We round up the latest research about how shoppers will buy this Christmas. Supply chain delays, fears of lockdown and lack of cash are among the important factors for shoppers, according tothese surveys – which reach some very different conclusions. Shopping patterns at this time of year are interesting not only for what they say about this year, but for what they say about how the way customers want to buy is changing in the longer-term.
The customer experience can be dramatically improved by implementing new technology
By Oliver Guy (pictured) Senior Director, Industry Solutions, Software AG Tesco’s venture into frictionless shopping proves its dedication to the customer experience. Implementing checkout-free technologies and approaches removes the biggest pain point in retail – queuing to pay. Consumers only have to walk in, scan their app, and walk out.
BRC-KPMG Retail Report shows retail sales slowed to their weakest performance since January for the month of September
By Oliver Guy (pictured) Senior Director, Industry Solutions at Software AG That retail sales slowed to their weakest performance since January potentially shows the strain the sector is under in the wake of fuel shortages and ongoing supply chain disruption. Rising prices and limited availability of certain products could be having an impact on consumer confidence.
The supply chain needs a digital transformation
By Oliver Guy (pictured) Senior Director, Industry Solutions at Software AG The statistics on food waste are always alarming but it could potentially get worse in the coming months. Ongoing supply chain issues and CO2 shortages in the manufacturing process are threatening the food industry – at a higher level in the supply chain, and action must be taken.
The supply chain needs a digital transformation, Software AG comments
By Oliver Guy (pictured) Senior Director, Industry Solutions at Software AG The statistics on food waste are always alarming but it could potentially get worse in the coming months. Ongoing supply chain issues and CO2 shortages in the manufacturing process are threatening the food industry – at a higher level in the supply chain, and action must be taken.
RetailX Panelist Webinar - "RetailX and Guests"
Join Ian Jindal and our panel of experts for the final RetailX and Guests of 2021. The webinar will be a post-pandemic, pre-peak playbook looking at 6 things that are going to be different about this year’s festive shopping frenzy. The panel will explore the factors that have contributed to these changes whether that be better technology, changing customer demands or the changes forced on retailers by the pandemic and other macro factors. Register now >>
"Super shed" boom but there’s untapped value in physical store space
By Oliver Guy (pictured) Senior Director, Industry Solutions at Software AG In the fast-evolving world of e-commerce, where there’s a wide pool of competitors, a reputation for quality service is vital. More than ever, this is determined by speed and convenience. To keep up with customer demand and expectations, it’s clear fast and secure delivery of online orders must take priority. But this doesn’t necessarily mean brands have to invest huge amounts in warehouse space, or ‘super sheds’.
Boots partners with Deliveroo, but will other retailers take note?
By Oliver Guy (pictured) Senior Director, Industry Solutions at Software AG Customer service expectations don’t vary much by industry. Good service is good service. Food delivery has already expanded into grocery delivery, so it’s natural to see it expand into other smaller products where customers have an immediate need.
Body Shop launches new recycling scheme across its UK stores
Shoppers can now recycle hard-to-recycle beauty products at The Body Shop. Image: Willy Barton/Shutterstock.com The Body Shop has launched a new recycling scheme across its 225 UK stores. The retailer, ethical beauty retailer, ranked Top150 in RXEU Top1000 research, is working with MyGroup and Scan2Recycle to power its Return, Recycle and Repeat scheme.
Boots trials fast delivery as online orders grow fast
Shoppers can now order goods from nappies to medicines for fast delivery from Boots. Image courtesy of Deliveroo Boots is trialling deliveries in as little as 20 minutes via Deliveroo as its online orders grow quickly. Shoppers can order from a range of 400 products on demand from Boots for delivery in a trial initially based in 14 pilot stores, including in Leeds, Liverpool, London, Edinburgh and Nottingham.
Omnichannel success makes Morrisons an increasingly attractive acquisition target
New ways of delivering are making Morrisons ever more attractive. Image courtesy of Morrisons Morrisons’ omnichannel business model continues to prove a key attraction in a bidding war that has now taken the price of the UK supermarket above £7bn. The retailer, ranked Leading in RXUK Top500 research, has seen its online sales triple over a year of pandemic as it found new digital ways to deliver groceries during Covid-19 lockdowns.
ONS retail figures a big relief for retailers, despite 'pingdemic' impact
By Oliver Guy (pictured) Senior Director, Industry Solutions at Software AG That sales were still up by 5.2% in the three months to July is a big relief for the retail sector aiming to win back trade during the summer season. Hopes rested on Freedom Day, but the real support has been from the high number of staycations, excitement of the Euros and Olympics, and the hotter weather – all of which have undoubtedly played a huge role in getting people out and spending.
Reinventing the store: Online will do heavy lifting
This is a guest blog by Written by Andrew Busby, retail writer, influencer and keynote speaker. This pandemic has had many effects on retail, from closing stores to a rapid shift to online and completely new customer behavior. But one – perhaps unexpected - thing it has shined a light on is the absolute importance of maintaining a robust store estate. At first glance, that might not be obvious.
Deliver RPA performance with process mining
If you cannot measure ROI, you cannot manage RPA projects (to paraphrase Peter Drucker). After all, how can you know if your robotic process automation project is delivering results if you don’t measure return on investment? If you know it is not on track, you can rectify it, change the instructions and values provided to the bots. But if you don’t know, you’ll potentially never recoup your RPA investment. You know you have to measure, but the real issue is how you measure RPA performance.
What a post-pandemic future will look like for Australian retail
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned many industries on their heads, forcing businesses to quickly recalibrate and pivot their operations. As such, for many industries, predicting the future during a pandemic would be difficult – if not impossible. However, retail is different. That’s because COVID-19 has acted as an accelerant for digital transformation – fueling and amplifying trends that have been creeping in for years.
But…we’ve always done it that way
Time to throw away the old rulebook and begin to understand how your retail business really functions. Like just about every other business, you can be sure that you most likely have plenty of them. They are there, lurking on hard drives, stuck to walls, sucking in your people’s time and energy. To what am I referring? Spreadsheets of course. Combine them, as in most cases, with undocumented, or worse, unknown processes, and it’s a recipe for rising costs and diminishing productivity.
Re-inventing the store
As retailers rush to compete in the online sales and delivery game, the solution could be right under their noses – their stores could be turned into fulfillment centers. The number of empty stores in malls and shopping streets has dramatically increased over the past year – and looks set to continue this year. Online shopping and Covid-19 have certainly accelerated the closures.
Connected Inventory 2021: The Future of Retail is Already Here
Brick-and-mortar stores were already evolving before the global pandemic accelerated the shift to e-commerce. More than ever, customers know what they need and are going directly to a store that has it, either to buy it or pick it up having ordered online. This consumer behavior makes inventory visibility more important than ever for retailers.
3 Predictions for the Future of Retail
For many industries, predicting the future during a pandemic would be difficult – if not impossible. Retail is different. Why? Because COVID-19 has acted as an accelerant for digital transformation – fuelling and amplifying trends that have been creeping in for years. You could even call this “Covid acceleration.” McKinsey recently determined that, over a 10-week period in 2020, digital business penetration had increased by the same amount as in the previous 10 years.
Why harmonised retail is the future
For many industries, predicting the future during a pandemic would be difficult - if not impossible. Retail is different. Why? Because Covid-19 has acted as an accelerant for digital transformation – fuelling and amplifying trends that have been creeping in for years. You could even call this 'Covid acceleration'. McKinsey recently determined that, over a 10-week period in 2020, digital business penetration had increased by the same amount as in the previous 10 years.
Store IoT platforms are set to go mainstream
Consumer Marketing Enterprise solutions Internet of things Logistics/Supply Chain Merchandising Operations Predictive analytics Retail Tech Sep 29, 2020 Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the blog of Oliver Guy, Senior Director, Industry Solutions, Software AG.
Store technology climbs out of the trough
Real-time store Internet of Things platforms are climbing out of the hype-cycle “trough of disillusionment” as stores prepare for a new future. Operating margins for in-store grocery retailing typically run at between 2% and 4%. The impact of Covid-19 lock-downs, subsequent restrictions and changes to operating practices has put this under greater pressure. As a response to this, retailers are focusing even more efforts on digital transformation and are driving interest in innovative technologies.
Is there a path to profitable grocery delivery?
Big Data Enterprise solutions IT Challenges Logistics/Supply Chain Online delivery Online Retail Predictive analytics Retail Tech Supermarkets Jul 23, 2020 Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the blog of Oliver Guy, senior director, industry solutions, Software AG. The article first appeared on Total Retail. Despite dramatic growth in grocery deliveries due to the pandemic, grocers are not necessarily making higher profits.
Three ways retailers are changing for good
By Oliver Guy, Senior Director, Software AG When the pandemic began, we saw so many changes to ‘normal’ that ‘normal’ meant expecting change. Even running out of coffee became an entirely new experience. Shopping – if the shop is open – has meant a 45 minute queue, and often we’ve been greeted with empty shelves. Online shopping has been a similar gamble, with websites crashing and home delivery booked up weeks in advance. Soon enough we realised this wasn’t a sustainable approach. So, we adapted.
The pandemic has changed retailing, maybe forever
Augmented reality Coronavirus In-store analytics Internet of things Online Retail Predictive analytics Retail Tech Robotics Store Design Jun 18, 2020 As the pandemic shut down our shops, we adapted. We joined new online retail sites and placed orders in advance. For printer paper or new sneakers, we shopped at Amazon.com. Many retailers did not change, however, and those without a strong online presence are now failing. This is not a temporary phenomenon.
Operational Efficiency in Grocery is Vital as Demand for Delivery Grows
COVID-19 has upended the way consumers shop for everything, especially groceries. Last year, delivery represented 3 percent of U.S. grocery sales; in the last month, grocery delivery services like Instacart have shared statistics showing that 9 percent of U.S. grocery sales are now via delivery. As many consumers hesitate to return to any kind of normal, the demand for online groceries will continue to accelerate, which drives focus for operational efficiency like never before.
What’s in store for retail in 2020?
Artificial Intelligence Consumer-direct Enterprise solutions Internet of things IT Challenges Retail Tech Trade Partners Nov 12, 2019 The year 2019 has certainly been an interesting one for retail. We’ve seen an enormous transformation as the industry has continued to evolve with establishments learning how to balance strategies between online and brick and mortar sales.
John Lewis and partners put forward ‘first blueprint for human robotic interaction of the 21st century’
Representatives of Waitrose and the Small Robot Company with farmbots at the supermarket's farm The John Lewis Partnership has worked with robotics companies, design consultants and industry bodies to develop what it says is the first blueprint for human robotic interaction (HRI) of the 21st century.
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