Travelodge landlords vote in favour of CVA: Travelodge landlords have voted in favour of a company voluntary agreement (CVA) that will see a 25 per cent cut in rent at 109 sites. The company, which operates more than 500 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain, is planning to sell 49 hotels to other operators. Accountancy firm KPMG, which is organising the CVA, said landlords at affected hotels will see a return of 23.4p in the pound compared with just 0.2p if the company is placed into administration. The British Property Federation complained that the move set a worrying trend for landlords. Chief executive Liz Pearce said: “If landlords now have to accept that a contract entered into in good faith by both parties can simply be renegotiated when one side no longer likes the terms it throws into doubt the whole basis on which a commercial property investment is appraised and financed. This will have significant implications for the commercial property industry as a whole – not just on its own financial wellbeing but also for the much-needed development it sponsors and for the pension funds that invest in it.” The deal, however, includes a clawback clause that allows landlords to share in the turnaround of Travelodge and also offers the chance for landlords to extend their lease terms. A debt restructuring will involve the write-off of £476m of shareholder loan notes, the repayment of a further £71m of bank loans and the extension of the maturity on the remaining £329m of debt until 2017.

Auction house Allsop predicts rise in receivership sales: Leading UK auction house Allsop, which has been selling a large number of pub and restaurant freeholds this year, has predicted that receivership sales, up ten per cent this year, will continue to rise. The auction house stated: “Although debt held against UK commercial property has reduced to £212.3bn, £51bn (28 per cent) is due to mature during 2012. With up to £100bn (47 per cent) expected to struggle to be refinanced, there are likely to be plenty of buying opportunities later this year and well into 2013. Quality locations and income flows will remain popular with buyers. But selling the more secondary properties with less secure income flows will be very much dependent upon getting the pricing right. We believe tenants, particularly those on the High Street, are likely to remain under pressure due to the double dip recession and general lack of market confidence, which is restricting consumer spending, and anticipate that the more secondary end of the commercial market will continue to weaken in the foreseeable future.”

World’s richest restaurateur reveals secrets: Forbes magazine has profiled Tilman Fertitta, the world’s richest restaurateur. He buys restaurant brands at knockdown prices and works hard to improve margin. Fertitta, who owns Rainforest Café and Bubba Gump Shrimp, has improved the total Ebitda of his last ten acquisitions by $150m to $350 million as margins improved by an average of 6.3 per cent. At one recent acquisition the company reviewed more than 250 items looking for cost savings. Tableclothes disappeared where there were hardwood tables and in restaurants where the carpets were shampooed every two weeks, the schedule changed to every three weeks. At the Rainforest Cafe chain he got rid of live birds that were costing each unit as much as $150,000 a year. He doesn’t sell quality assets. He told Forbes: “I buy things that are good properties that I’m going to have forever. I just don’t have any intention to sell anything. I believe you acquire good assets and you keep them and operate them.”

Marketing Week – Innocent to focus hard on maintaining grassroots marketing: Smoothie brand Innocent has told marketing bible Marketing Week that it sees its key challenge as maintaining grassroots marketing, so consumers see the brand in the same way as when it launched in 1999. Douglas Lamont, Innocent’s marketing director, told Marketing Week: “I want people to think about Innocent in the same way consumers did when they discovered us in 1999. Our challenge as we become more of a mainstream household brand is how we continue to be unique and engage more people in conversation with us.” Innocent’s creative team is acting like an “editorial newsroom” as the brand looks to keep people engaged with new content on social media and its own blog and website.

Gourmet Society launches WH Smith “Love Dining” pack: The Gourmet Society, which has 500,000 members, has launched a ‘Love Dining’ pack as a gift for couples with leading retailer WH Smith as a present idea for the festive season. The pack entitles couples to enjoy half-price dining for a year with two-for-one meals or 25 per cent off the bill (including drinks) at over 6,000 UK restaurants. The pack will include a personal 12-month dining card, a comprehensive UK and Ireland restaurant guide, monthly member newsletters and bonus offers. Andrea Fisher, gift & magazines subscriptions buyer at WHSmith, said: “In recent months, we’ve seen increased interest in couple’s gift packs as customers look for cost effective and original gift ideas. Couple’s gift packs provide the ideal solution and restaurants looking to drive footfall are perfectly placed to benefit from this growing trend.”

Banks turn away small businesses: Almost 50 per cent of small businesses looking for their first loan or overdraft since January 2010 have had their application rejected, according to research by BDRC Continental. Dr Adam Marshall, British Chamber of Commerce policy director, said: “There are still serious obstacles for many companies seeking external finance.”

Prezzo to open 25 restaurants this year; greater peaks and troughs in trading in 2012 so far: Restaurant company Prezzo, which has 194 sites trading and is headed by Jonathan Kaye, is on track to open 25 restaurants this year. The company stated: “The pipeline for openings over the next 18 months is well-developed and the second half will see openings in several more major cities (Bristol, Bath and Manchester). By the end of 2012 we would anticipate having opened approximately 25 new restaurants and with the landmark of 200 restaurants fast approaching, we have been strengthening the Prezzo team and increasing investment in training, marketing and other support functions within the business. It would be fair to say that 2012, with its Royal Diamond Jubilee celebrations and an extremely successful Olympic Games in London, has been somewhat atypical and greater peaks and troughs in trading have presented both opportunities and challenges for restaurant operators.” Prezzo has opened 12 new restaurants so far this year. Revenue was up 14 per cent to £68.1m and pre-tax profit rose four per cent to £7.6m in the 26 weeks ended 1 July.

Spirit stresses negative affect of weather and Olympics: Managed company Spirit hinted yesterday that its 4.1 per cent increase in like-for-like sales might have been even better but for the negative affect of the wet weather and the Olympics. Chief executive Mike Tye told City analysts that the wettest summer in 100 years meant that its pubs with large outside areas hadn’t seen as many warm days as might be expected to make them busy “outside and inside”. Of the Games, he said: “The Olympics upset our core trade in London – there were far fewer tourist groups around. The second week of the Olympics were over-riding the riots of the previous year (but even here) the numbers were not as good as we could have hoped.” The company had enjoyed a boost from the Jubilee and the Euros but this had been dampened by the weather, said Tye. He added: “Overall we’re pretty pleased. We still out-performed the rest of the sector.” The company said it had sold - or was in the process of selling – around half of the 100 leased pubs it has on the market. There was no geographic difference in the performance of its managed pubs, but its leased pubs are doing better in the south than the north. Analyst Douglas Jack, of Numis, reports that June and July saw a 62 per cent year-on-year increase in rainfall.

Landmark pub to become bookmaker’s: A bidding war for a landmark pub in South Shields, The Criterion, has been won by a bookmaker. Mark Worley, of agent Christie + Co, said: “There was huge interest in the site from both pub operators and property developers, and it went to ‘best and final’ offers to decide on the eventual buyer. It is unfortunate, from the pub industry's point-of-view, that we have lost a landmark venue to alternative use. Having said that, comfort and encouragement can be taken from the fact that pubs remain sought-after by a wide variety of purchasers from vastly differing backgrounds, and they can still generate a lot of interest.”

Café Latte eyes 40 sites: A franchised coffee shop chain founded three years ago in Cheshire is looking to expand to up to 40 sites. The first Cafe Latte, was opened on The Paddock, Handforth, by Francesca Manuel in 2009 after she was made redundant. Franchised sites have opened in Ramsgate, Aldwych, London and, Blackburn. Manuel said: “From the day we first opened, our customers recognised that we offered a more personal and relaxing coffee shop experience. And they still do now. We continue to be as popular as ever and have a huge, growing and loyal clientele. The vast interest and popularity in the Cafe Latte brand led to the franchising of the business in 2011 and we have been growing ever since.” Manuel also came up with the idea of making her business child friendly with a designated, supervised and sound-proofed children’s area. She added: “Our children’s area is the perfect place to leave the kids for an hour or two while you go shopping or just let your hair down for a bit.”

Chicken-focused restaurant trend gets new arrival: The trend for restaurants in London focused on chicken is set to receive a new arrival. Gideon Joffe, son of Giraffe founders Russel and Juliette Joffe, is to open Chooks, a casual dining concept serving chicken, on the site of a former Ask in Muswell Hill. Other chicken-focused openings are Mark Hix's Tramshed serving only chicken and steak, Wishbone in Brixton Village, and Soho’s House The Chicken Shop in Kentish Town. Chooks is Australian slang for chicken.

JD Wetherspoon to start work on controversial Hampshire pub: Work will commence next Monday (10 September) on turning a former home furnishings store in Lymington, Hampshire into The Six Bells. The venue, set to be open, for Christmas, was the cause of one the longest and most bitter planning battles ever seen by the company. The plan to convert the Palfrey & Kemp store in St Thomas’s Street sparked 200 letters of protest and a 240-name petition.

Douglas Jack – we expect Greene King and Marston’s valuation to stay aligned: Numis Securities leisure analyst Douglas Jack has argued that Greene King managed like-for-likes sales above forecasts offer the greatest potential upside on the company’s share price. He added: “Otherwise, the company claims to be on track to open seven new builds/single sites in H1 and 25 over the full year. Our 615p target price (9.2 per cent upside) equates to 9.1x December 2012 EV/EBITDA, consistent with our 130p target price (15.0 per cent upside) for Marston’s. Even though consensus expects stronger self-financed profit before tax growth from Marston’s (eight per cent three year CAGR) relative to Greene King (five per cent three year CAGR), we expect their valuations to remain aligned.”

Harris + Hoole opens second site: Harris + Hoole, the upmarket coffee shop chain backed by Tesco’s, has opened its second site in Uxbridge. The new opening occupies a vacant site in the glass-fronted Market House in the centre of Uxbridge – Costa, Caffe Nero and Pret A Manger have sites close by. The first Harris + Hoole opening was in Amersham with Ruislip in Middlesex set to be the next to open.

US pizza chain franchisee tastes success with double drive-thru: A franchisee of US pizza chain Pizza Patron has entered the top five for company sales across 104 sites after introducing a double drive-thru – the chain is one of the first pizza brands to follow the burger chain route in offering double drive-thru. “The double drive-thru was our franchise partner's idea,” Andrew Gamm, brand director for Dallas-based Pizza Patrón told Nation’s Restaurant News. “It is very unusual for a pizza chain to adopt such an aggressive QSR-type model, and we wouldn't consider it without a very experienced and engaged operator.”

Leeds multi-site operator to turn site into gastro-pub: Leeds multi-site operator Lewis Cuddy is to turn The Wellington pub in Leeds into a gastro-pub with a new name – The Central. Cuddy, who owns The Wrens Hotel, in New Briggate and Milo bar in Call Lane, aims to re-open the venue by late October.

Premier Inn manager objects to Utopian Leisure plan: An application by nightclub company Utopian Leisure to extend last orders at its Love Shack nightclub in Durham until 3.30am has met with objections from the operations manager of a nearby Premier Inn. Kathryn Haller reports that the hotel, which has a “Good Night’s Sleep Guarantee”, has had to refund £9,197 over the past 14 months due to noise.

Hungry Horse chain holds music competition: The 180-strong Hungry Horse chain is holding music talent show auditions – looking for the “Horse Factor” - throughout September. One winner will be chosen to go on to regional finals in October. The winner of each regional final will go through to a national final where an overall winner will be announced. The overall winner will receive £10,000 and a day in a recording studio. The nine runners-up of the national final will each receive £500.

Iconic Meribel bar and restaurant on the market: The iconic Dick’s Tea Bar, arguably the best-known bar and club in the Alpine resort of Meribel, is on the market with agent Christie + Co. Dick’s Tea Bar has two bars and a restaurant. Staff are accommodated in a flat with six en-suite bedrooms. Simon Chaplin, director and head of restaurants for Christie + Co, said: “Dick’s Tea Bar is a legendary brand both in Meribel and Val d'Isère. The Meribel site has been operated by its current owners since 2010 and in addition to the renowned bar they have incorporated The Den as an excellent eating facility.” Offers are invited for the lease. Turnover for the five-month ski season is £465,000 with gross margin of 77 per cent.

iTradeNetwork launches multi-site ordering portal: iTradeNetwork has launched a multiple operator portal - www.multipleoperatorportals.co.uk - as an internet-based IT solution that caters for the specific online purchasing requirements of the hospitality sector. Through a company-branded website, it connects head office buyers to their outlets and suppliers, all on one ordering system. A spokesperson said: “It manages the complexities of food and beverage ordering across supplier networks, whether organisations have five or 5,000+ outlets. The IT solution gives head offices increased visibility of what their outlets are buying online and ensures compliance with supplier contracts.”

McDonald’s to open vegetarian only sites in India: McDonald’s is to open its first ever vegetarian-only outlets in the two Indian pilgrimage centres of Amritsar and the small town of Katra. McDonald’s has 271 sites in India and wants to double in size. The new all-vegetarian sites will start by offering the existing vegetarian items now being sold across the country but is expected to develop new items to expand the selection. Sandwich chain Subway, which has 280 outlets across India, opened its first vegetarian-only restaurant on a private university campus in Punjab this week. Domino’s Pizza, the biggest foreign fast-food chain in India, has several vegetarian outlets in a few neighbourhoods of Mumbai and Gujarat.

Café Rouge, Wagamama and PizzaExpress set for Westquay: Three major brands, Café Rouge, Wagamama and PizzaExpress, are set to open in Southampton’s £7m new Westquay development in November. The existing shopping centre is being developed with an extended food hall, “Dining at Westquay”. The existing roof terrace will be extended and covered with a glass atrium, offering all-year-round seating with views of Southampton Water.

US Burger King serves up four new chicken menu items for its autumn menu: Burger King in the US, which has already had its biggest menu changes for many years this year, has added four new chicken menu items for the autumn: an Italian basil chicken sandwich, an Italian basil chicken wrap, a chicken parmesan sandwich an popcorn chicken. A fresh salad wrap, raspberry fruit smoothie and an Italian breakfast burrito have also been added.