Business Daily

The CEO of Vue International started out as a high school drop out as he wanted to concentrate on a snowsports career.

We hear how, when that didn't work out, Tim Richards ended up entering the film industry and eventually starting his own cinema chain in his garage.

Vue is now Europe's largest privately owned cinema chain but it hasn't been an easy ride - Tim tells us how the company has weathered both the Covid pandemic and the Hollywood writer's strikes.

(Image: Tim Richards. Credit: Getty Images)

With just over a week to go until the UK General Election, we head to the seaside town of Southport in the north west of England.

We speak to students and young entrepreneurs who live in the area to find out how they are feeling.

We ask about the impact of inflation and a rising cost of living, and see which issues they'd like to hear the politicians talking about.

It's far from a British problem - Southport could really be a microcosm of the changes and challenges facing young people in a community near you.

Presenter: Will Bain

(Image: Business owner Leanne and manager Alex behind the till at the their shop Cake Corner)

Ever needed to put your stuff in a storage unit?

Recent research predicts the global self-storage market will be worth around $70bn by 2031 and the UK’s self-storage industry made more than £1bn last year for the first time ever.

But what’s behind this rapid growth? What are people putting into these units? And what does it have to do with Gen Z and internet shoppers?

We also hear from critics on what the growing industry says about housing around the world.

Presented and produced by Sam Gruet

(Image: A young woman loads storage boxes into a unit. Credit: Getty Images)

A shadow fleet of old and poorly maintained ships is cruising the high seas, often hiding their true identities through a series of shell companies.

Their numbers have grown massively since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Lloyd’s List estimates as many as 12% of tankers are part of the dark fleet.

There’s increasing concern about the danger to the environment, and to ship’s crews. But how effective at tackling the problem is the regulator, the International Maritime Organisation?

Presenter: Lesley Curwen

(Image: Sea and ship at sunset. Credit: Getty Images)

Senegalese international and former Chelsea goalkeeper Édouard Mendy is considered a legend of football.

Becoming the first African to be awarded both the UEFA and FIFA goalkeeper of the year in 2021, followed by a big money transfer deal to Saudi Arabia, Mendy has reached the very heights of the game.

But football careers don't last forever, so he is diversifying, and can now add a new line on his CV - as an investor in Francophone Africa.

We hear about his work on the pitch to date, what’s motivated a move into fintech, and why he thinks footballers need to plan for their future after they give up the professional game.

(Image: Edouard Mendy looks on in the paddock during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia, 2024. Credit: Getty Images)

Presented and produced by Peter Macjob

The social shopping industry is estimated to reach around $8.5 trillion in global sales by 2030. So what are the big tech giants doing to win over a generation of teenagers hooked onto shopping on social media?

We find out what makes shopping social and find out what happens when a country bans social shopping on the world’s fastest growing platform.

We speak to Gen Z shoppers, social media experts and an Indonesian business owner who almost had to let his staff go after the government changed the law around selling on social media.

Presented and produced by Sam Gruet

(Image:Livestream seller Evo Syah. Image credit: Evo Syah)

As prize money gaps between men and women begin to close in many sports, in golf, the pay disparity is still very large.

Nelly Korda, winner of five consecutive tournaments, earned less than Scottie Scheffler, who won four. And although current and former players like Korda and Mel Reid have made strides in the game, there's a significant difference in the prize money they receive.

A lot of the disparity has been linked to the level of investment in the game. The men’s game has seen major cash injections, such as the $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund into LIV Golf. Sam Fenwick explores what could boost investment in the women’s game and asks current player Mel Reid and former player, Nancy Lopez, how the game can attract more funding and TV time.

(Picture: A montage of Nelly Korda and Scottie Scheffler, swinging their golf clubs, against a background of a green. Credit: PA/USA Today Sports/BBC)

Presented and produced by Sam Fenwick

Summer tourism in the Mediterranean is not only already in full swing but set for another bumper season.

In Rhodes, "the more the merrier” is the mantra on this famed Greek isle, which is economically reliant on tourism. But the growing influx of arrivals each year alongside increasing frequency and ferocity of the annual wildfire season is posing some hard questions for locals about the need for more environmentally-friendly forms of tourism. Now, an ambitious five-year programme is underway, aimed at transforming the fourth-largest Greek island into “a beacon for sustainable tourism.” We head to Rhodes to take a look at how it is progressing, how businesses are adapting, and the way tourists are responding.

Presenter/producer: Victoria Craig

(Photo: Anda Karayanni of the Irene Palace Hotel, Rhodes, tending to some plants. Credit: Victoria Craig/BBC)

When is tourism good tourism, and when is it just too much?

Current projections suggest global travel is going to carry on rising for the foreseeable future, as low-cost air travel and budget rentals make package holidays ever more affordable for ever more people.

But from Tenerife to Venice, more and more tourist destinations are feeling the pressure of these rising visitor numbers. In holiday hotspots, local people are complaining of congested streets, rising housing costs, and environmental degradation. And some have even taken to the streets to protest about the issue. So what’s to be done?

(Image: Thousands of people demonstrate against tourism policies on the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain in 2024)

Presented and produced by Ed Butler

23 years ago, the US multi-millionaire Dennis Tito became the world’s first-ever space tourist, funding his own trip into orbit.

There was clearly money to be made, and now the lure of making space tourism more accessible to the masses is even greater - with several private companies jockeying for position.

Jane Poynter’s firm is among them.

It’s an industry experiencing dramatic growth – but the price of any of these trips is out of reach of most of us.

We explore whether this firm could achieve its aim of launching more of us into stratospheric heights.

And we hear how Jane went on her own journey: from ecologist working in the famous Biosphere 2 experiment in the early 1990s, to looking skywards and the possibilities of a career in space tourism.

Presenter: Ed Butler