Exclusives

  • Led all trade and national newspapers in the late 1980s on the campaign to change the Sunday trading laws. Often cited as “the leading authority in Europe” on the issue
  • Uncovered a fruit and veg relabelling scam during the apartheid era whereby produce was relabelled as produce of Bophuthatswana to get around sanctions – 1988
  • Broke the story that a consortium called Isosceles was going to mount a bid for the Gateway supermarket group and that four of the Gateway board were backing the consortium. There were rumours I had bugged the boardroom. I had not, of course – I just had excellent sources
  • The arrival of Aldi in the UK
  • Covered a gun siege at a chemist’s as a rookie trainee in 1984. I was the only one who discovered the name of the woman held hostage while the siege was in progress – appeared on front page of The Evening Standard
  • Food tampering scares – the Financial Times called on my expertise in this area to write for the newspaper
  • In the late 1980s and early 1990s I got a series of exclusives about Tesco because of good sources I had cultivated
  • Led the press on the arrival of Costco in the UK
  • Led the coverage of the salmonella-in-eggs scare (“Currie Gate”) and BSE – The Sunday Times frequently contacted me for information
  • Led coverage of the formaldehyde/chemical hair-straightening controversy in the hairdressing press and provided research on the subject for the national press.