The Times - UK (2022-06-13)

the times | Monday June 13 2022 35

Business

Tom Howard

Confidence in the Bank of England and
Andrew Bailey, its governor, suffered a
further blow yesterday when critics
condemned a £200,000 contract given
to external consultants to help to “de-
fine the essence of the organisation”.
The Bank was told that paying an
outside agency such a sum to draw up
the mission statement was “ludicrous”.
The criticism comes before a crucial
week for central bankers, as they pre-
pare to raise interest rates again in an
effort to tame rampant inflation, which
has sparked a crisis in the cost of living
and sent confidence among British
consumers to record lows.
It emerged yesterday that the Bank
had hired The Storytellers, a London-

based consultancy, to develop a new

“employer value proposition”.

As with other businesses in the City,

where a battle for talent has been

raging for months, the Bank is strug-

gling to retain and recruit staff. It wants

the new mission statement to show

“why people are proud and motivated”

to work there and plans to use it to “de-

velop a brand that we communicate

consistently to attract and retain our

talent”.

Official documents, first reported by

The Sunday Telegraph, show that the

contract began at the end of last month

and is due to run until the end of

September. For its work over that four-

month period, The Storytellers is being

paid £203,160. Coming not long after

the Bank spent £51,000 to make its logo

“more inclusive”, for which it was sub-

ject to ridicule, the latest expenditure

has been criticised by politicians.

“If the Bank itself doesn’t understand

its mission and can’t articulate it, it’s a

very sorry state,” Kevin Hollinrake, a

Conservative member of the Com-

mons’ Treasury select committee, said.

“It’s absolutely ludicrous that an out-

side agency has to come in and define

its own mission statement.”

Andrew Sentance, the former Bank

of England policymaker, said “attempts

to massage the Bank’s marketing initia-

tives seem badly misplaced... The best

way of strengthening the Bank’s public

image is to take more decisive action to

control inflation.”

Bailey has been a frequent target for

critics since he was appointed two years

ago. Lord Moylan, a Conservative peer,

tweeted on Sunday that “he [Bailey] has

to go” after reading about the latest

contract award.

Hollinrake added that “for me, it

[paying consultants for a new mission

statement] is a further indication that

the leadership needs to improve”.

A spokeswoman for the Bank, said:

“The recruitment challenges facing the

Bank are shared by many organisa-

tions. To best serve the people of the

UK, we are working hard to attract

people with the skills we need both now

and in the future. It’s essential that we

clearly and honestly portray what the

Bank stands for and what we can offer

prospective employees.”

Critics have questioned the effective-

ness of Bailey, 63, on several occasions

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in recent months, mainly over the

Bank’s handling of inflation, which has

spiralled to its highest levels in 40 years.

Mel Stride, the Conservative chair-

man of the Treasury select committee,

said last month that Bailey and his team

had been “slow off the mark” in spot-

ting that “we are now in the foothills of

a wage-price spiral, with wages chasing

higher prices, leading to higher wages

in turn”.

Britain’s central bankers are expected

to raise interest rates again at the meet-

ing of the Bank’s monetary policy com-

mittee on Thursday as they try to rein

in inflation. Most economists think the

Bank will lift rates by 25 basis points to

1.25 per cent, although some believe

that a bigger move to 1.5 per cent might

be on the cards.

Call for Andrew Bailey to quit over ‘ludicrous’ mission statement

Anger at Bank’s £200,000 rebrand

KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES; GENNADY GALPERIN/REUTERS

S

tripped of their

Big Macs and

golden arches,

15 former

McDonald’s

outlets were reopened in

Moscow yesterday

offering citizens a

foretaste of life after the

withdrawal of big global

corporations (Ian Morris

writes).

The world’s largest

burger chain became

one of the most high-

profile businesses to

depart since President

Putin’s invasion of

Ukraine when it closed

all 850 of its sites in

March. The franchises

were sold to Alexander

Govor, a Siberian

businessman and one of

many Russians snapping

up assets as western

firms exit, for what he

said was a “symbolic”

figure and “far lower

than market price”.

McDonald’s took a

charge of up to

$1.4 billion after the sale.

Scores of customers

waited up to 45 minutes

to be served at what was

the chain’s first Russian

restaurant in Pushkin

Square. The outlet

sported a new logo — a

stylised burger with two

fries — plus the slogan:

“The name changes,

love stays.” It is among

the first of 200 slated to

be launched by the end

of the month, with the

other 650 to be open by

the end of the summer.

The unveiling of the

rebranded outlets comes

more than three decades

after the American

burger group opened its

doors in Moscow in a

symbolic thaw between

East and West under

President Yeltsin.

After a cosmetic

redesign, the domestic

be known as

Grand. Chicken

McNuggets were

rebranded as

simply Nuggets and

McMuffin as Muffin.

A double cheeseburger

was priced at 129 roubles

(£1.80), compared with

160 roubles under

McDonald’s, and a fish

burger for 169 roubles,

compared with about

190 previously.

“We don’t have the

right to use some

colours, we don’t have

the right to use the

golden arches, we don’t

have the right to use

any mention of

McDonald’s,” Govor

said. “The Big Mac is

the story of McDonald’s.

We will definitely do

something similar. We

will try to do something

even better.”

The interest, however,

paled in comparison

with January 1990, when

thousands of people

flocked to try western

fast-food for the first

time, buying as many as

30,000 burgers. Russia

and Ukraine accounted

for about 9 per cent, or

$2 billion, of McDonald’s

revenue last year.

From Russia with

love, but no Big Mac

successor has been

named Vkusno i tochka,

which translates as

“Tasty. Full Stop”.

Filet-O-Fish has

become Fish Burger,

while Royal Burgers will

McDonald’s sold its

outlets in Russia and

they are reopening

unde a new logo,

below. Boris Yeltsin

at the opening of

a McDonald’s in

Moscow in 1990, left

d

n.

rger