Business week in brief

In profit ...

For new Mulberry boss Bruno Guillon, who has joined from French luxury goods brand Hermes, a golden bonjour is more than just a kiss on both cheeks.

On Wednesday, it was announced he has been granted more than 200,000 shares as part of his sign-on package – he paid £2 for each share, but Mulberry covered the remaining £16.89-and-a-half-penny that they cost. He will get the money in three tranches over the next four years, but only if the shares hit £23.02.

The Aviva chief executive Andrew Moss made his bid to become the insurance darling of the stock exchange on Thursday. Moss, pictured, said, "the UK is a great place to do business. We are very much here for the duration". It's difficult to see this as other than a swipe at rival Prudential, which the previous week confirmed it was considering moving its headquarters away from London, possibly to the more lightly regulated Hong Kong.

Another smiling boss on Thursday was Morrisons' Dalton Philips. The UK's fourth-biggest grocer reported annual underlying pre-tax profit of £935m, smashing analyst forecasts.

...at a loss

When it rains it pours. Or floods, in the case of Amlin, the Lloyd’s of London insurer. Speaking at the group’s annual results last Monday, boss Charles Philipps announced a bigger than expected pre-tax loss of £193.8m after a year of tectonic turmoil.

There were record catastrophe claims from the earthquakes in New Zealand and Japan, with floods in Australia, Denmark and Thailand compounding a dreadful 2011. But, there is a rainbow: more insurance and reinsurance cover tends to be taken out after catastrophes, so Phillips could at least point to an "improving trading environment". Marine rates in particular are strengthening in the wake of the sinking of the Costa Concordia.

Pity poor Mike McCollum. As the chief executive of Dignity, a listed undertaker, you have to be careful how you express that the falling number of deaths is bad for business. On Wednesday, he tried with this subtle gem: "2012 started more quietly than 2011."

Schroders’ chief investment officer Alan Brown is quitting in a shake-up of the fund manager. Last Thursday, the company insisted it was not punishment for underperformance.