Bakery chain Gail’s plans to open 40 more outlets as sales soar

The upmarket bakery chain Gail’s is planning 40 more outlets after sales rose by a fifth last year as it opened 36 new bakeries and sales to supermarkets increased.The cafe and retailer, which currently has 185 sites, said sales rose to £278m in the year to the end of February but that pre-tax losses widened to £7.8m, from £7.4m a year before, as costs rose and it spent millions on opening new outlets, according to accounts filed at Companies House.Gail’s directors said staff and energy costs had risen, hitting profit margins, while it spent £51m on store pre-opening costs

Is gen Z’s love of fried chicken pushing Britain to ‘peak pizza’?

Competition intensifies as former chief of Domino’s says days of ‘massive growth’ are overPizza has become ubiquitous on British dinner plates, with chains such as Pizza Express, Franco Manca, Domino’s and Goodfella’s dominating the market – but is its popularity starting to cool?Domino’s Pizza Group announced this week that its chief executive of two years had stepped down with immediate effect, less than two weeks after he appeared to suggest the UK may be approaching “peak pizza”.Andrew Rennie – who worked for Domino’s for more than two decades and in the top job for just two – told the Financial Times this month there was not “massive growth” left in the UK’s pizza market.Given the fast-growing demand for fried chicken, he said it was “pretty obvious” the group should broaden its menu.Rennie’s calculations are borne out by the shrinking presence of pizza restaurants on UK high streets after a period of rapid expansion more than a decade ago.The number of chain pizza restaurants has fallen from 5,000 in 2015 to 3,750 today, according to the restaurant analysts CGA, with companies such as Pizza Express, Pizza Hut and Papa Johns closing outlets in recent years

How big tech is creating its own friendly media bubble to ‘win the narrative battle online’

At a time when distrust of big tech is high, Silicon Valley is embracing an alternative ecosystem where every CEO is a starA montage of Palantir’s CEO, Alex Karp, and waving US flags set to a remix of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck blasts out as the intro for the tech billionaire’s interview with Sourcery, a YouTube show presented by the digital finance platform Brex. Over the course of a friendly walk through the company offices, Karp fields no questions about Palantir’s controversial ties to ICE but instead extolls the company’s virtues, brandishes a sword and discusses how he exhumed the remains of his childhood dog Rosita to rebury them near his current home.“That’s really sweet,” host Molly O’Shea tells Karp.If you are looking to hear from some of tech’s most powerful people, you will increasingly find them on a constellation of shows and podcasts like Sourcery that provide a safe space for an industry that is wary, if not openly hostile, towards critical media outlets. Some of the new media outlets are created by the companies themselves

More than 1,000 Amazon workers warn rapid AI rollout threatens jobs and climate

More than 1,000 Amazon employees have signed an open letter expressing “serious concerns” about AI development, saying that the company’s “all-costs justified, warp speed” approach to the powerful technology will cause damage to “democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth.”The letter, published on Wednesday, was signed by the Amazon workers anonymously, and comes a month after Amazon announced mass layoff plans as it increases adoption of AI in its operations.Among the signatories are staffers in a range of positions, including engineers, product managers and warehouse associates.Reflecting broader AI concerns across the industry, the letter was also supported by more than 2,400 workers from companies including Meta, Google, Apple and Microsoft.The letter contains a range of demands for Amazon, concerning its impact on the workplace and the environment

Panthers shock Rams, Texans beat Colts and Bucs best Cardinals: NFL week 13 – as it happened

(7-6) Carolina Panthers 31-28 Los Angeles Rams (9-3)(3-9) Cleveland Browns 8-26 San Francisco 49ers (9-4)(8-4) Indianapolis Colts 16-20 Houston Texans (7-5)(5-7) Miami Dolphins 21-17 New Orleans Saints (2-10)(3-9) New York Jets 27-24 Atlanta Falcons (4-8)(7-5) Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20-17 Arizona Cardinals (3-9)(1-11) Tennessee Titans 3-25 Jacksonville Jaguars (8-4)And that’s the end of that chapter. I’m really glad we got another upset after all the shocks midweek. The Panthers couldn’t look like more of a different team than the rabble that flopped against the 49ers on Monday. Nice to see Bryce Young pull off a huge win, maybe we might start seeing a few more of them as he continues to develop. Enjoy the rest of night’s action if you are staying locked in, goodnight! I’ll just leave you with another view of that frankly ridiculous Puka Nacua catch

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri voice frustration at McLaren’s strategy

Lando Norris, the championship leader, has decried the McLaren team strategy error at the Qatar Grand Prix that allowed Max Verstappen right back into the fight and forced a three-way battle at next Sunday’s title-deciding finale in Abu Dhabi.Verstappen won the race in Doha after McLaren chose not to pit their drivers under a safety car early in the race. It was a costly error that gave Verstappen the lead and the win. Norris could finish only fourth and his teammate Oscar Piastri, who was equally unhappy with the team, was second.Norris had been 24 points ahead of both Piastri and Verstappen going into the weekend but now leads Verstappen by only 12 points and Piastri by 16