People & Business

The Celebrated Group, the AIM-quoted company which operates the fledgling Chilli's Mexican restaurant chain, has undergone a boardroom shake-up since buying out the American founders of the brand, Brinker's, last November.

Yesterday H Michael Bush, 43, an American who is currently non-executive president of the Domino Pizza Group, took over the role of chief executive of Celebrated from Geoffrey Tucker, who in turn becomes chairman. Bob Littledale was acting as chairman of Celebrated while the acquisition from Brinker's was being negotiated, and he remains on the board as a non-exec.

Mr Bush also takes over the financial director role from Mrs Pat Moody, who resigns from the Board. A new financial director will be hired in due course, according to the company.

Celebrated currently has two Chilli's restaurants, in Cambridge and Canary Wharf, London, and has just started on a new branch in Basildon, Essex. It plans to roll out the restaurant chain in the South-east and the rest of the country. The Directors were given an added incentive to make the idea work yesterday by granting themselves a shipload of options. Mr Bush for instance, has been granted 1 million shares at 11p, and a further 1.2m at 13.5p.

Celebrated's shares rose 0.75p to 10.75p yesterday. Pass the tequila.

Loss adjustors Pycraft & Arnold have told me of an appalling case of a pub regular being put off his favourite drink - Guinness - by accidentally swallowing a fly along with the black stuff. According to the firm, the man, who was drinking in a pub in Dublin, went on to finish the pint, but later that evening became "nauseous".

Alan Thomas, manager of Pycroft & Arnold's Bristol office, says: "The customer claimed that from then on he couldn't face a pint of Guinness. The only beer he could down was Budweiser - 30p a pint dearer in his local.

"He sued the licensee on the grounds that, as he drank on average eight pints a session, the fly episode was costing him an extra pounds 2.40 a day - seven days a week. His claim, therefore, was for his annual additional bill of pounds 806.40 - to be paid each year for the rest of his life."

Hmm. Sounds better than working. Anyway, the litigious barfly lost his case. Mr Thomas concludes: "The court probably felt that, after downing eight pints, he didn't have a leg to stand on."

Declarations of the death of marriage as an institution are a mite premature, if the findings of an Abbey National survey on people planning to get spliced are anything to go by.

More than 90 per cent of those surveyed by the bank said they were planning to spend up to pounds 15,000 on their wedding, with an average figure of pounds 6,800.

And while Valentine's Day hoves into view, fewer than a quarter of the 4,000 surveyed said that they were planning to share "all" their finances.

One dramatic development is for modern couples to put their own hands in their pockets to finance the Big Day. Only 15 years ago, more than two-thirds of weddings were being paid for in full by the bride's parents.

In this survey 75 per cent of brides said they and their fiancee would be using their own savings, with 11 per cent and 10 per cent mentioning personal loans and credit cards respectively, as other possible payment methods. As a further sign of the times, 7 per cent said they would pay for the wedding using a building society windfall.

Ken Livingstone MP was at it again at a City property awards dinner on Wednesday night, when he told 498 top property people that if he were elected Lord Mayor of London, " I would put up your taxes, but you can afford it."

The plutocrats loved it. Red Ken also threatened to take back London's County Hall: "Would you keep an asset - and then sell, just as the market reached the bottom, for millions less than it had been worth at the top?"

The gathered wheeler dealers murmured in agreement. Later Ken had to excuse an early exit to the House of Commons, to vote in a "minor rebellion" over newspaper charges.

"With this three-line whip, I have to be there so they can see I have abstained," he quipped.

Are you about to fly off to New York on business? Pop over to Brussels to do a spot of lobbying? Or perhaps you've just returned from the annual ski-fest in Davos?

Chances are that at least once in a while it will have flickered through your mind, as the airplane engines rev, "What if the plane crashes? What if this is the one?"

Well, Company Barclaycard reckon that almost one in ten of business travellers have a fear of flying. Some 12 per cent of this group admit such fears have prevented them from travelling on business.

The Barclaycard study also showed that 16 per cent of female respondents admitted to a fear of flying, against only 7 per cent of men. On the other hand, over a quarter of males admitted that a fear of flying had once stopped them from travelling on business, against only 6 per cent of the females.

Pah, what nonsense. Hang on a minute, is the wing supposed to be vibrating like that ...