Brotherly love is no Secret at Tough Mudder, Aldi bids to strike a chord with new service and Retail Week cheques out of Bank of England event.

Secret Sales Tough Mudder

Brotherly love is no Secret at Tough Mudder

Spending your Saturday getting electrocuted in a muddy field is not everyone’s idea of a fun day out. However, Secret Sales founders Nish and Sach Kukadia must be gluttons for punishment, because that is exactly how they decided to spend last weekend. Sach (centre row, fifth from left) is said to be the sportier of the two brothers, while Nish (front row, second from right) is happier spending his time on Madagascan wildlife holidays than hitting the gym. A source claims there was no sibling rivalry between the pair and they pulled together with the rest of the Secret Sales team to finish the Tough Mudder course at the same time. Now that’s what you call brotherly love.

Aldi strikes a chord with music streaming service

Discounter Aldi’s revelation that it was moving online gained plenty of column inches this week, but its latest move to diversify in its home country has also struck a chord with consumers. The German supermarket has already proved chief disrupter to the likes of Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda in the UK grocery market, but now it has set its sights on Spotify, Apple Music and Tidal after launching Aldi Life Musik, a streaming service powered by Napster. And it’s already up to its old price-cutting tricks, offering the service for just €7.99 per month – less than any of its established rivals. Bosses will be hoping it succeeds where Tesco Blinkbox failed by hitting the right note with music lovers.

Bank of England’s fears noted by Retail Week

Here at Retail Week we like to feel welcomed. And we gladly accepted an invitation to the Churchill War Rooms to hear all about the prospect of polymer banknotes, as part of an event hosted by CMS Payments Intelligence. Sadly, the Bank of England had other ideas. When its officials got wind journalists had been invited along, it promptly demanded a ban on all media attending – due to the fact that one of its top bods was speaking. We know plastic banknotes are a controversial issue, but that is ridiculous.