Budgeting for expansion

Here is a really good example of two businesses looking to exploit opportunities from the economic downturn.

Travelodge - which is owned by Dubai International Capital - has announced an fresh expansion plan which fits into its long-term aim to grow to over 70,000 rooms in nearly 1000 hotels by 2020 and to be the biggest hotel operator in London by the time the Olympics arrives in 2012.

And as part of the organic growth strategy, Travelodge is teaming up with the discount food retailer Aldi to develop sites together into supermarkets and hotels. Notably two of the initial projects in this joint venture are in Middlesbrough (on Teesside) and in Newquay in Cornwall - both in regions where per capita incomes are substantially below the national average.

Both businesses are taking advantage of the collapse in demand for commercial and residential property - which is freeing up land for others to invest in.

Oxbridge Economics: Introduction to Game Theory [21 May 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Game Theory and Business Economics [21 May 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Quiz on Market Structures [11 Apr 2012]
Price of Stamp increases to 60p [27 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Focus on UK Manufacturing [6 Mar 2012]
Adapt or Die - Lord Bilimoria and the Cobra Story [4 Mar 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Volkswagen targets growth markets [25 Feb 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Low Pay in Supermarkets [24 Feb 2012]
Unit1 Micro: Processed Meat and Cancer Risk - Information Failure? [17 Jan 2012]
Don’t you just love it when Panorama does your lesson for you!- Part 2 [6 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tacit Collusion in the Supermarket [27 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Unilever hit by rising costs [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tesco Behaving Badly - Price Anchoring [17 Oct 2011]
Skidelsky in Madrid [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Contestable Markets - Lucozade takes on Coca Cola [10 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Cotton Prices and the Retail Price of Clothing [13 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: FirstBuy, Affordability and Effective Demand in Property [10 Jul 2011]
Where there’s muck there’s brass [6 Jul 2011]
A2 Micro: Price Discrimination [19 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Monopsony Power in Markets [19 May 2011]
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Unit 3 Micro: Perfect Competition [19 May 2011]
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A2 Micro: Business Growth [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Moving Away from Profit Max [18 May 2011]
Review of “Adapt” by Tim Harford [9 May 2011]
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A2 Micro: Innovation in Markets [4 May 2011]
Macroeconomics revision - measuring Consumer Confidence [4 May 2011]
Management lessons from the War in Iraq [30 Apr 2011]
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AS Micro Revision: Banana Prices [1 Apr 2011]
Timetric: Mortgage Lending and Mortgage Rates [14 Mar 2011]
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Economics Q&A: Should the CAP be scrapped? [14 Feb 2011]
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EU Economics: EU Economy in Charts Jan 2011 [29 Dec 2010]
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Barriers to Entry: Cutting it in the USA [8 Nov 2010]
Steven Johnson – Where Good Ideas Come From [2 Nov 2010]
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Departing from pure profit maximisation [14 Oct 2010]
Growing the Warburtons Brand - Focusing on Core Values [3 Oct 2010]
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Housing market and negative equity [31 Aug 2010]
Essential business reading for the summer! [5 Aug 2010]
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Housing and the British Economy [5 Jun 2010]
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Warnings of hysteresis for the EU economy [29 May 2010]
Fosters Demerger - Beer and Wine rarely mix! [26 May 2010]
Google TV - Excellent example of a joint venture [21 May 2010]
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UK CEOs on their recession strategies [23 Feb 2010]
Supermarkets accused of price gouging [13 Feb 2010]
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Pain in Spain - on the brink of depression [26 Sep 2009]
Managing a global business in turbulent times [23 Sep 2009]
Simon Henry at the Keynes Society [20 Sep 2009]
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The Wealth Effect [12 Sep 2009]
Strictly Labour Market theory? [11 Sep 2009]
Hold the phone! [9 Sep 2009]
Tentative signs of a pulse in the housing market [30 Jul 2009]
Information and Consumer Choices - Two Stories [29 Jul 2009]
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