“I don’t think it will work in rural areas,” Mr Flanagan said.The company hopes to extend the range to 25,000 lines in the future.. The London Stock Exchange yesterday revealed for the first time details of the deep rifts between members in the 190 responses it received in the biggest consultation exercise in its 200-year history. The plan is to concentrate the service on the London area for three years and then spread out into other large conurbations. Tesco is selling wine on the Compuserve on-line system but is also looking to expand into other areas of home delivery.Mr Flanagan said the company planned to puts its printed catalogue on the Internet and CDRom in time. Flanagan’s is looking at the possibility of joint branding with Sainsbury’s if the supermarket giant offers its own brand through the system.The delivery process of home shopping is seen as a key part of the development of shopping on the Internet and other forms of electronic retailing Sainsbury’s is already selling wine on the Internet. Payment is by credit card.The company has 12 vans which will trade under the Supermarket Direct name. We have decided to go for the latter.”Richard Chadwick, Sainsbury’s director of business development, said: “Home delivery is a small but growing market.

We have a lot of projects looking at this market and this is one of them. We see it as a way of offering more choice to the customer.”The re-financing of Flanagan’s, thought to be a multi-million pound deal, is in two stages The first cash injection has been completed. The second will involve a private offering to other shareholders. Sainsbury’s has an option to take an equity stake but has yet to take up that option “We are just a supplier,” Mr Chadwick said. However, Sainsbury’s is offering assistance with technology and logistics.As before, Flanagan’s will start the home delivery of groceries in Wandsworth with 2,500 lines, mostly well-known brands, supplied by Sainsbury’s. The cost to customers is pounds 4 per delivery regardless of the size of order.Order is by phone or fax and orders received by 6pm are delivered the following day within a two hour time slot Flanagan’s is hoping to offer a same-day service. NIGEL COPE

The home shopping service set up last October to supply groceries provided by Sainsbury’s is to start trading again next month.
Flanagan’s, which ran a home delivery trial in Wandsworth, south London, for three months, ceased trading earlier this month due to financial difficulties.

However, it has now been re-financed and a new supply deal set up with Sainsbury’s. Sir Michael Sandberg, the former chairman of HongKong Banking Corporation, is on board as chairman and has invested in the company.Adrian Flanagan, joint chief executive said: “We had to decide whether we would be a small niche operator, or take the market by storm. Like other theme restaurants, it derives a large part of its revenue – 38 per cent last year – from the sale of merchandise.. He recently ended a court battle with Rank over his departure from Hard Rock to set up the rival Planet Hollywood.There are currently 28 Planet Hollywood restaurants around the world and the company recorded its first profit last year, $20.7m on revenue of $270.6m. Mr Earl made his first fortune when Hard Rock Cafe, which he also founded, was sold to Rank. Among new celebrity stockholders are Cindy Crawford, Tom Arnold, Wesley Snipes, Melanie Griffith and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Together the famous names will hold about 16 per cent of the company.In a highly unusual, not to say intriguing, clause the sale prospectus stipulates that these investors will be released from the usual no-sale- before-180-days provision if a director of the company is faced by “drug- related charges”, a criminal charge or other embarrassing charges.New paper fortunes will also be made for both Mr Barish and Mr Earl, who currently hold 28.6 per cent of the chain, compared with Mr Ong’s 24.2 per cent. In its SEC filing, the company says it plans to distribute nearly 13 million so-called “celebrity shares” to these investors who have promoted the restaurants by attending openings and tantalised customers with the prospect that they might drop by themselves for a casual bite.The founding celebrities in the chain include not just Stallone, Willis and Moore, but also Arnold Schwarzenegger, Monica Seles, Andre Agassi and Shaquile O’Neal. Also expecting to be paid back is the Singapore tycoon Ong Beng Seng, who helped bankroll the chain at its inception in 1991.Also smacking their lips are the chain’s dazzling stable of celebrity investors. DAVID USBORNE

New York
Want to join the ranks of Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and Demi Moore and, along the way, help them get even richer than they already are? Then line up your spare change for the upcoming public offering by Planet Hollywood.The theme burger and pizza chain co-founded by Robert Earl, the British restaurateur, and his Hollywood producer partner, Keith Barish, has finally confirmed the rumours: come the spring it will be offering shares to the public in a bid to pay off its debts and further fuel its world-wide expansion.The announcement, made in an official filing last week with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, is just the latest hot news to come from the theme restaurant industry that is suddenly bursting out around the world, especially in New York.While it has set no price for its shares, Planet Hollywood expects to raise $190m (pounds 130m) from its sale, of which about $130m will be used to pay off institutional investors. Lower levels of stockbuilding contributed to slower growth, while the rise in investment spending was subdued.Not surprisingly, given the shutdown of the Federal government, a 3.7 per cent drop in government spending in the fourth quarter helped reduce growth..

Consumers increased spending by only 0.8 per cent, well below trend. Spending on non-durable goods was down 1.4 per cent, and on durables up a meagre 1 per cent. Exports also grew faster, climbing an impressive 10.9 per cent at an annual rate.Other categories, and especially consumer spending, were very weak. Earlier this week Mr Greenspan told Congress that the chances of the economy rebounding exceed 50 per cent.GDP grew 2.1 per cent last year, the slowest since the recession year 1991 and down from 3.4 per cent in 1994. In the fourth quarter it increased at an annualised rate of 0.9 per cent, about half what was expected.Lacy Hunt, chief economist in the US for HSBC Markets, said: ”The figures suggest the Fed has more work to do.”Most of the quarter’s growth was explained by spending on computers and computer equipment This increased at its fastest rate since the early 1980s.