Business Gazetteer

ICE CREAM SUN DAY

Temperatures hit 70 - or was it 99?

LAST week proved to be something of a scorcher in London withtemperatures hitting the high 70s.

Which made the Infosecurity Europe exhibition a ratheruncomfortable place to be. A combination of glass roof andoverstretched air conditioning transformed Olympia into a greenhouse.

Help was at hand, though, courtesy of Scottish internet servicescompany Iomart.

Staff from its Netintelligence arm set up a beach bar, donnedHawaiian shirts and shorts and dished out free ice-cream all week.

Not that the company managed to get one up on the Met Office.Iomart admits it had been planning its tropical-themed stunt formonths - the IT hook for the beach bar being that you can useNetintelligence's network monitoring software from anywhere in theworld.

Something worth considering, if your company happens to be basedin Blighty and you want to see what websites people are surfing whileyou're sunning it in Barbados.

Pass the lotion and the laptop please.

FACT OF THE DAY

62 per cent

RESEARCH from M&S Money reveals that 62 per cent of driversbelieve their insurer will provide a replacement car if theirs iswritten off or stolen, despite only one in five policies includingthis benefit as standard - what is known in the industry as a "totalloss courtesy car".

Only some 28 per cent have another car they could use, while afurther quarter would have to borrow a car or pay to hire one.

KILLER QUOTE

"I bloody well hope so."

Aberdeen Asset Management chief executive, Martin Gilbert,responding when asked whether he thought the split-capital investmenttrust fiasco which almost brought the firm to its knees was now over

GOOD DAY

Bonhams

THE fine art auctioneer has opened an office in Moscow to supportits London-based Russian department. Marguerite Strasser, head of theoperation, said: "My presence will make it easier for local buyers toaccess Bonhams' international marketplace."

BAD DAY

Michelin workers

THE French tyre maker is to close its final-salary pension schemeto existing members in the UK and transfer staff to a money purchaseplan. The company said it had taken the decision because it faces adeficit of more than GBP 250 million, despite pumping GBP 100m intothe fund.