Business week in review

In profit ...

McDonald's UK chief Jill McDonald announced on Monday that the fast-food chain had enjoyed its "busiest-ever" day towards the end of June. She put this down to people treating themselves to a Big Mac around payday.

For the sake of clarity, we would like to point out that McDonald is no relation to the scourge of the Hamburglar, Ronald McDonald.

Volkswagen chairman Martin Winterkorn pleased the good people of Crewe on Tuesday. He announced an £800m investment in the town's Bentley factory, which has been charged with building an ultra-powerful sport utility vehicle.

Ian Cheshire, boss of B&Q owner Kingfisher, revealed strong second-quarter results on Wednesday.

... at a loss

Wednesday's news that Sir David Higgins is to leave Network Rail next year, which is more of a loss for the industry than for him.

The man who earned his "k" for overseeing the construction of the London Olympics, found far less love as head of an organisation that looks after most of Britain's rail infrastructure.

He has helped Network Rail become more commercially focused, but was criticised for his £100,000 bonus.

Hibu boss Mike Pocock confirmed on Thursday that the Yellow pages owner had finally collapsed into the arms of its creditors after restructuring £2.3bn of debt. That same day Unilever chief executive Paul Polman announced weak sales.