Kick-offs and Lift-offs

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

0:29CFO. LinkedIn has a word for that. Bull spend. Now you can invest in what looks good to your CFO. LinkedIn ads generates the highest ROAS of all major ad networks. You'll reach the right buyers because you can target by company, industry, job title, and more. So cut the bull spend. Advertise on LinkedIn. The network that works for you. Spend$250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn ads and get a 250 credit for the next one. Just go to linkedin.com slash broadcast. That's linkedin.com slash broadcast. Terms and conditions apply. Host unforgettable backyard barbecues with savings from Whole Foods Market.

1:14Get the good times going with made-in-house chicken or pork sausages and ready to cook kebabs for hassle-free flavor. Grab tasty flatbreads and their new balsamic chicken salad in the prepared foods department. Keep things fresh with organic red cherries, strawberries and peaches at their peak. And stock up on bug sprays and sun care must-haves. Make your summer sizzle at Whole Foods Market. Wake up to money from BBC 5 Live. Hello, welcome to Wake Up to Money. They think the wait is over. It is now. The Men's Football World Cup begins later tonight. It brings 104 matches. So for hospitality bosses, for many around the country, will that be a boost to their economies?

2:02Those in the United States, those in Mexico, those in Canada as well. We'll be checking in with plenty right across the world throughout the program. Also on the show, on the eve of SpaceX's blockbuster listing on a stock market, we're going to be chatting with the managing director of a British satellite company that Elon Musk visited back in 2009. We're told a visit that helped springboard Musk's entire space ambitions. And we're going to hear how the boom in weight loss drugs, making front page headlines again today, is now feeding through to another part of the food industry. Protein, a surge in demand, pushing up prices, raising fears of shortages.

2:40Wake Up To Money with Sean Farrington. Good morning to you. Here we are. Wake Up To Money on BBC Five Live. The only place to be for the World Cup. Thursday the 11th of June the date has arrived it's just after 5 o 'clock all those wall charts are now in sync with the day of where we are I hope you've got yourself prepared for the month or so ahead just keep 5 Live on that is all you will need we'll keep you right up to date if there's matches on carrying on around this time of the morning you'll have all you need to know here whether Wake Up To Money is on or not but we're going to take advantage of the moments when we are by talking a bit about football, bringing you up to speed with all the other top stories from the world of money, the world of business as well.

3:25I've got Jane Foley with me, head of FX Strategy at Rabobank. Good morning to you, Jane. Good morning, Sean. I've got to kick off with how's the US dollar doing, the Mexican peso, the Canadian dollar, currencies, as that's your specialist, Jane. Before we get into the World Cup and the hospitality chat and all of that, what should we be looking out for? The US dollar has been doing a little bit better over the last month or so, but it's nothing to do with football, I'm afraid. It's all to do with US inflation and whether or not the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates this year. Well, I have that on my shortlist as well, Jane, before the show is out to talk about price rises in America and what might happen to interest rates there.

4:04Jane, more broadly, we've talked so much for many a year now about Donald Trump's ambitions and where the United States has been heading. And he likes to sort of put himself pretty front and centre of any major event that the United States is associated with. And the World Cup and its majority role in America, as it has had, will have a similar role for Donald Trump, won't it? Indeed. I mean, you know, he also, of course, has got some elections. Well, not him personally to fight in November, but certainly in the lower house. and his popularity ratings are pretty low right now. So if he can sort of associate him perhaps with something that's very popular, well, he's certainly going to do that.

4:53Well, so the day has arrived. The Men's Football World Cup kicking off at eight o 'clock tonight. The co-hosts Mexico playing South Africa in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. Here at Five Live, we'll be bringing you 92 live commentaries, coverage of all of the 104 matches from across Mexico, Canada. at the United States. BBC Sounds, Five Live. That's all you need. You'll be able to catch up with all the action you may have missed overnight as well on Five Live Breakfast. Rick's going to be in America, of course, over the coming days and weeks. The best podcast on BBC Sounds as well. All the news and analysis from the tournament on Football Daily.

5:34Every day with Rick, Rick Edwards, Lloyd Griffith and guests aplenty as well. Wayne Rooney show twice per week. Loads for you to get involved with here at Five Live and on BBC Sounds. Loads of aspects for us to be looking at on Wake Up To Money as well. And over the coming days and weeks, it will be fascinating to hear what your plans are, what your spend is being around all of this, because we know it's a big time for hospitality, for supermarkets, whether you're going out to watch games, whether you're planning on staying in, are they changing your plans completely? How does it compare to previous years?

6:13Are you able to find places where you're going out and it's an affordable thing to do regularly over the coming weeks? Have you picked one or two games that are going to be your big meet-up with the mates and the family to watch particularly? We're going to be talking about that as well because one sector eagerly awaiting the beginning of this World Cup and the next few weeks is hospitality and pubs in particular. So an extra billion pints of beer thought to be bought during the World Cup, according to the market analyst Jefferies. Yesterday, I caught up with the executive chairman of Fuller's.

6:47So it's a brewer, hotel, pub chain, mostly got venues in London and the South East. And he told me that the timing of this year's game, so that when they are kicking off, was also a positive for the pub sector. I think it's going to be a very different World Cup to previous events, mainly because of the kickoff times. What we've previously seen is when you have kickoff times at things like 1 o 'clock, 3 o 'clock, 5 o 'clock, it can cannibalise normal summer trading. So the later kickoffs could potentially play very well to pubs, actually. So overall, would you expect this to be a bigger period of sales given the varied kickoff times?

7:28Well, this next three-month summer period is our busiest period of the whole year, and clearly the World Cup is an important part of that, but it's not the only part. We're seeing a big jump in staycations, growth in domestic tourism. We've got a big programme of activity with our gardens. So we are anticipating an excellent summer and we are hoping that England stay in the tournament long enough to really benefit pubs. So that's Simon Emony, the Executive Chairman of Fuller's. Jane, it's always an interesting test of people's confidence and how they're spending, isn't it, when there's such a huge event that captures the imagination of so many?

8:09And with that, inevitably, come some spending decisions. Yeah, you know, I think for the UK economy right now, it comes at a very sensitive time. And the reason I say that is because the labour market is worsening, you know, unemployment is increasing, etc. And typically, of course, that means that people are a lot more cautious with their spending. They're worried about their job security. They're worried about their incomes. And so this perhaps for many people will be a little bit of a difficult time. They'll want to go out and spend and enjoy the matches, particularly, of course, when their team is playing.

8:43But at the same time, for many people, they will be a bit anxious about doing that too. And Jane, give us a rundown on the American economy before we cross to the United States and speak to a variety of businesses right around the country there. What's been going on for households for businesses in America? Well, if we go back to before the war started, so if we go back to about February, there were only two G10 central banks that the market thought would be cutting interest rates with confidence. Some people thought maybe they will, maybe they won't for perhaps Europe. But it was only the US and the UK that the market confidently thought would be cutting interest rates.

9:23And that's because those economies in the UK and the US appeared to be slowing down. However, if we look at the US now, over the last few months, the labor data, which is really important data for the US, has come up better than expected. And we thought, oh, actually, the US economy now appears a lot more resilient than it appeared to be into the end of last year, the very beginning of this year. And certainly, of course, if you think about the US economy, it is, of course, an energy exporter. It still imports types of crude that its refinery stations deal with. But overall, it's an energy exporter.

10:01You compare that to Europe, it's an energy importer. And generally speaking, energy exporting nations won't be so harmed by the closure of the Strait of Hamas than economies like the US. So the growth headwinds for the US because of the closure of the Strait of Hamas are far less than in Europe. Well, let's cross to the United States, have a bit of football chat, have a bit of economy chat, See how things are going down, whether the excitement is ramping up, where the spend has been. Are the fans from different countries spending in different ways? We've got Tonya Zubier with us again, General Manager of Hotel Crocodile in Seattle, which is a host city for the tournament.

10:42So we've got about six games lined up in the coming weeks. Tonya, thank you for joining us on Wake Up To Money again. Hi there, it's good to be back. How are things at the moment now, Tonya? Because last time we spoke, we had some football fans on from the UK. We have a Scotland football fan, I remember, when we were talking to you. And they had some concerns about the cost of things, how they were going to be getting around America. And you could understand where some of those concerns were coming from. How has it played out at the end on World Cup opening day? You know, I'm glad we're doing the follow up because now, you know, Perspective has shifted as we gained more information now that we're right in it.

11:26I'm definitely impressed with Seattle's setup of infrastructure, keeping costs of transportation down. I know it was mentioned last time that some of the other host cities were raising prices on public transportation. That is not happening. And there's also quite a few free watch parties happening in the city, too, which we are personally directing fans to. if they're not actually going to the game. So we've compiled an exhaustive list of those places to go and how to get there. Very useful. How's the hotel itself? Have you got a massive crocodile in there somewhere? We do. We have lots of massive crocodiles, actually, in our music venue and also in the hotel.

12:14You'll see two big crocodiles. The hotel is still doing well. I kind of like to think of it as our revenues this summer are coming from three channels. It's World Cup, it's Cruz, and then it is people coming to see shows in the venue. So we're strongly supported in that sense. What I have noticed is that this first game that kicks off here in Seattle, I believe on Monday the 15th, that is the slowest for us. We've had a lot of cancellations, and I have been able to find out from the people canceling that it's because they were not able to get tickets or they decided they couldn't afford it. So definitely some cost issues there.

12:52We are replacing those rooms, however, with people coming to cruise, coming to shows. So still feeling good. So that's Belgium-Egypt on Monday is the first game. Do you know, is it fans of those, either of those teams in particular, or is it American tourists from elsewhere in the country? Really, it's American tourists from elsewhere in the country. We personally are not seeing a lot of international travel. I know other hotels are seeing more than we are, but we're really fairly close within the Pacific Northwest and Southern California is where a lot of our travel for this is coming. Right.

13:30And in terms of the hotel, do you have the flags up of all the countries? Is there World Cup colours galore everywhere? Do you have to embrace it like that when you say it's one of the three major things for you in the coming weeks? Um, we don't. We really kind of, we lean into being very welcoming. And like I said, we've created these lists and have kind of worked into our general conversations with people about what they can do during World Cup and like where they can go if they want to watch if they're not going to a game. But we kind of stick with our standard aesthetic and really invite people to kind of embrace the musical aspect of it.

14:07It's just additive to their overall Seattle experience, I think. Is that because there'll be plenty of guests coming and staying in Seattle at your hotel who actually the World Cup won't be in their mind at all they'll be there as part of a cruise or they'll be there for a show and and soccer as you guys call it might not be so much front of mind. Not so much front of mind really front of mind on the days that the games are happening of course but guests in the surrounding dates, less so. So we're making sure that we've kind of catered to everybody. We want everyone to feel good, you know. Well, look, don't go anywhere, Tonya, because there's still plenty more of a chat to be had about how America in particular is handling this hosting of the World Cup.

14:58We're going to bring in Chris Thomas as well, who runs Brit Boy Street Food, which is a British pie, sausage roll and pasty business in Kansas City, Missouri. Chris, thank you for joining us on Wake Up To Money. How are you doing? I'm good. Thank you for having me. It's a little late over here, so I'm burning the midnight oil. Well, really appreciate it. I mean, it's a big few weeks, Chris, so worthwhile. And also, you are only, I was having a look on Google Maps a bit earlier, You're what, a 20 minute drive or so from where the England team is camping up in Kansas City as well. Is there a feeling that the England team and I think there's some other teams, aren't there, based around there, are not too far away?

15:41Yeah, Kansas City is a very accessible city to all the different districts and areas throughout. And we've got four nations hosted here, England, Argentina, the Netherlands and Algeria as well. so I think on any given day you might run into a team driving somewhere or doing something that's definitely a possibility for sure and you're in Missouri that's right yeah just uh yeah I live in well I live in Kansas City um my business is based in Missouri just over the border um 20 minutes from where I live yeah so um always a bit of a confusing one if you try as I did yeah yeah Kansas City is actually in Missouri for those listeners that don't know so it can get confusing.

16:24But the state of Kansas right next door, just over the other side of the river. Anyway, Chris, enough of the geography lessons. British pie, sausage roll and pasty business in Kansas City. How? Why? When life gives you lemons, you start making sausage rolls, essentially. So, yeah, myself and my wife ran our own business for 12 years. We actually lived in L.A. and then Seattle for four years. And then unfortunately, we lost everything with COVID. So we've been really pivoting ever since. And when we moved back to, I moved to Kansas four years ago, it's where my wife's from, she grew up here in the city.

17:04And we had corporate jobs for the first time, we somewhat set a foundation. And then unfortunately, we found ourselves unemployed within 30 seconds of each other last Christmas. Wow. So with my business acumen, if you will, of, you know, 12 years running my own business, if we were ever going to do a food business that I'd previously built, I'd built the model for Brit Boy Street Food, but just didn't have the time to turn it on. We simply looked at each other and said, well, if we're ever going to do this, it's now. So we got to work and that was 16, 17 months ago. And here we are today, just booming, quite frankly.

17:43It's quite incredible how fast it's gone and how big we currently are with things going on. Well, that's fantastic to hear. And well done to you and your wife for navigating all that and creating something like this. Why the British food? Just explain, Chris, you know, listeners and myself might not want to make assumptions about your story, where you're from, either in the United States, in the UK. So where does Brit Boy Street Food come from? Yeah, I've always cooked. My mum is a home ec teacher. So she really had hot food on the table six nights of the week. And then we went out for one night growing up.

18:21Where was that? In Selby, so Yorkshire. So Yorkshire born and bred. And then I moved here when I was 21 years old. So I've been here almost half my life now. And then cooking has just always been part of my life. It's very expensive to eat out. So we always saved it for that special occasion and just didn't assume we were just going to eat out night, you know, every night. So we I just got really good at cooking. And when you cook, it brings people together. And from the businesses that I've run and just my whole persona, if you will, I just love bringing people together. And what better way to do that than with food?

18:59So the business model started quite interestingly in the sense of the whole idea was let's just feed people up breweries. Breweries here in the States, they don't offer food. It's just beer and now wine and liquor. They don't offer food. So people usually leave to then go get food. Is that like a craft beer bar sort of place? Exactly. Yes. So they specialize in one thing and customers have to go elsewhere to eat. so the whole idea was let's feed people that are drinking and if they don't like it they won't remember and it'll be okay um but then we kept selling out within an hour or an hour and a half of of setting up and people just kept coming back people were driving two hours to come and eat my food and then it's just really taken off from there in the sense of we are now predominantly a frozen food business um and interestingly enough um english food gets a bad rap um And stereotypically, it's bland.

19:56It doesn't taste good. It doesn't look good on the plate. Interestingly enough, that's just not the case, shockingly. So people that have lived over here for a long time or they visited England at some point in their life that love the food, they're typically the ones that are seeking me out. People that haven't visited England or have any idea what it tastes like, they're typically not seeking me out because they just believe in the stereotypes. Right. Which we all know are not always true. and Chris just with the entrepreneurial story you're telling there you mentioned having a corporate job and you and your wife losing your job losing your jobs at a similar time and then once again going entrepreneurial how is the environment in the United States and maybe it's different in Kansas City compared to other places you've lived as well compared to the United Kingdom if you have that idea of do you know what we're just going to do this yeah i to get it started is relatively easy um there's a lot of companies out there that will you know do it for you from a paperwork perspective i'm fortunate enough to know a few lawyers um that do it on the cheap for me um again some of my friends that i've met here um so starting the business relatively easy keeping it legal and paying all the taxes and all the the government agencies that want their piece of your business, extremely difficult.

21:20So ultimately, one of the things that you learn as you get older is you can't do everything yourself. Focus on what you're good at and then hire others that are better than you to do those things that you're not very good at. So I'm not an accountant. I don't know where all the taxes need to be paid, but my accountant does. So just surrounding yourself with the right people so you can focus on what you specialize in is absolutely key to ultimately staying out of jail, losing something that they want to come after. That's always key when running a business. We're very, very familiar with hearing that stuff on the show.

21:56Chris, to the World Cup a bit more then, what are you hoping to get out of it? How's the mood around Kansas City? The mood is buzzing, yeah. The FanFest, similar to Seattle, they've made it very accessible. There's a huge network of free transportation going from one watch party to another. I think there's seven or maybe eight watch parties throughout the whole Kansas City, Missouri metro. So you can literally just get on a bus and hop from one to the other. The FanFest you do pay. Well, there's different levels. There's a free one and then you can pay. And then even getting to the stadium because it's quite far out there in Missouri, if you will.

22:35it's only$15 round trip from any of the bus stations that have been set up specifically for the World Cup so they've made it very user-friendly very accessible this is a city that when something is going on like this they definitely get behind it it's helped with Kansas City Chiefs being good over the last eight to ten years putting Kansas on the map and I'm pretty sure after these events have unfolded, this will no longer just be a flyover city and a flyover state because it's going to open the world up to Kansas City and it's a bit of a hidden gem. That's American football, isn't it? Kansas City.

23:12Yes, sorry, yeah. Kansas City Chiefs and American football, yeah. So, yeah, big sporting hub, which is why when people have maybe been reading plenty about teams like England being and choosing Kansas City is a bit of a sporting centre there already. Okay, don't go anywhere, Chris. Tonya still with us in Seattle we've had Chris in Kansas City we're going to bring in somebody from LA as well Brisia Lopez is co-owner hi Brisia how are you LA LA I am ready there was no need to even say you were from LA we can feel the Los Angeles I am giving the LA energy and you're bringing the Mexican energy the American energy Yes, I am bringing the LA Mexican energy, which is what LA is fueled on.

24:02So there you go. By definition, LA is Mexican. And I should say, well, I mean, it's a very, very cosmopolitan place. I should say, Bricia, that you own Oaxacan restaurant in LA. I do. Gela Getza. Just give us a little bit of a rundown of, you know, the size of it. We may not be familiar with that restaurant and yourself, but if people are interested in Mexican cuisine and culture, they may well be aware of yourself. So just tell us where it's all come from. Yes, of course. Hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm Brisa Lopez. I'm the co-owner of Gala Geta Restaurant here in Koreatown in Los Angeles, California, which is a huge privilege.

24:51We serve food from Oaxaca, from a very specific region in southern Mexico. We're very proud. And Mexico is one of the hosts of the World Cup. I think it's what all of my Mexican tios and all of my family have been waiting for their entire lives. We're just very excited. And I'm very, very proud to not only represent Mexico, but represent L.A., Koreatown. And we've been hosting. We've been in this city for over 30 years, which is crazy. And I am just so proud to be able to open our doors once again to all the LA fans so we can all cheer together, laugh together. Definitely, we will definitely be crying together because I love my tricolor, but I also know, you know, I don't know.

25:37I don't know we're going to make it to the end. So I'm ready to cry. I'm ready to laugh. I'm ready to have shots. I'm ready to drink some beer and have the best time in the city. So, yeah, that's who we are. And do you sense around L.A. that the football World Cup is coming your way? Because we know, I've been chatting a little bit to Tonya and Chris about this, that soccer is not necessarily the national sport of the United States. For Mexicans, it'll be much higher up there, won't it? But how is the mood when you're stepping out on the streets with a World Cup imminent? Well, I will tell you this, that walking into LA is very much like if you were walking through Mexico.

26:24So, yeah, we'll just give you an idea. LA is a city of its own. I feel like we're a little country within a country. LA is very different than the rest of the U.S. Here, the majority who make up this beautiful city, we're all proud Mexican-Americans, Mexicans. And we're just so excited. It's almost, it's electric. You can see it in the streets when you go to every Mexican restaurant, when you walk through Koreatown. I mean, it's huge. I'm the most excited about the Mexican-Korea game on June 18th. Oh, wow. I hadn't actually joined the dots there about what that means for you. Yes. In Koreatown, in a Mexican restaurant, I'm rooting for both teams.

27:05I've actually made a custom jersey that's half Mexico, half Korea, just because we're just so embedded in the culture here. LA is different. It's different. It's beautiful. It's incredible. And we're just so excited. You can definitely feel it. Obviously, it comes from the people who make up the city, primarily Mexican-Americans, Korean-Americans. And we're just so damn proud and we're so excited. And, Brizia, we like to sort of get into the numbers a little bit on this show as well. We are embracing the fun side of it all and the excitement around it. I don't know if I know many numbers. Don't worry.

27:39No, but, you know, the hospitality industry needs this energy, doesn't it? I don't know how things have been for the likes of yourselves in the United States. But here in the UK, you know, hospitality, people owning and running restaurants have had a real tough time of it over the last couple of years because people's budgets have been tighter and everything. How important a period is this for you? I laugh a little bit because there's no city that's hurting the most in the industry than Los Angeles. California is a state that has hurt the most in the industry. Hospitality in this state, particularly California, is one of the most resilient and one of the ones who have gone through the toughest periods in the past two, three years.