Administrator – Wabi London owes £3 million and there’s been one offer of £50,000 so far: The administrator of Wabi London, the sushi restaurant headed by former Nobu chef Scott Hallsworth, has reported that the business owes unsecured creditors just short of £3 million – £2,960,000 – in the wake of its collapse after little more then six months of trading. Wabi, located in London’s Kingsway, was opened on 14 November 2012 with 110 covers and closed on 10 June this year. The administrator reports turnover “appeared reasonable” but was not enough to “support the significant wage” and other operational costs being incurred. The restaurant was launched by Meridian Investments which held a 90% stake with Hallsworth owning 10% – it was leased from Kingsway Holdings, which operates the Club Quarters hotel above the restaurant. Since the restaurant was placed in administration a single offer of £50,000 has been made for it on behalf of the management team. A non-refundable deposit of £24,000 was paid but the deal did not complete because the management team was unable to reach agreement with the site’s landlord. A new tenant for the site is being sought by the administrator, BM Advisory, and the landlord is not charging rent during the process. Kingsway Holdings is owed £604,000 and HMRC is owed £48,500. BM Advisory has stated a dividend payment to unsecured creditors is unlikely. The freehold of Wabi Horsham, a separate business, is currently on the market with Davis Coffer Lyons for £1.3 million.

Propel Multi Club Conference: The next Propel Multi Club Conference takes place on Thursday 7 November at One Moorgate Place. London. Operators can claim up to two free delegate places by e-mailing jo.charity@propelinfo.com. 

Beer figures suggests supermarkets big winners in July: Beer volume figures for July that Propel Info has seen suggest supermarkets were the biggest winners in July’s hot weather. Volumes for the month in the off-trade were up 40% on the back of an 11% decline in July 2012. The on-trade managed 1% growth on the back of a neutral position in July 2012. Cask sales declined 4.9% after 2.6% growth in July 2012. 

Coffee shops struggle to create loyalty: Coffee chains are struggling to encourage brand loyalty among consumers as convenience becomes an increasingly important factor, according to a report in Marketing Week. Almost half of UK coffee drinkers (43%) say they tend to go to a coffee shop that is closest to them and have no particular loyalty to brand, whereas a third (32%) try to go to the same coffee shop or chain where possible, according to a survey of 1,000 coffee drinkers by consultancy Pragma. Helene Mills, associate director at Pragma, said “Coffee is a convenience-based purchase. People aren’t going to walk miles to go somewhere unless there’s something that really sets it apart.”

Tata Starbucks to open 100 India sites by next year: Tata Starbucks plans to open around 100 Starbucks sites in India by next year and is building a war chest for expansion by more than trebling its authorised capital. The 50-50 joint venture between Starbucks and Tata Global Beverages has already signed two dozen properties, including in the suburbs of Mumbai and Bangalore. In comparison, rival Cafe Coffee Day has more than 1,500 stores while Barista Lavazza and Costa Coffee has more than 100 stores each. The Indian cafe market is estimated to be worth $230 million.

Lap-dancing club ordered to pay £16,500 in fines and costs over “inappropriate contact”: Magistrates in Bristol have ordered T3 Temptations to pay more than £16,500 in fines and costs for five licensing breaches. Bristol Magistrates Court heard how CCTV from Temptations examined after an unannounced visit from licensing officers in January showed three dancers getting closer than they should have in the “private booths” area of the West Street venue. Prosecuting, Sally Andrews said: “The footage from all three cameras showed extensive and repeated contact between customers and performers.” The court heard this included one stripper holding a customer’s face and giving him a kiss while he had his hands on her buttocks. Other footage showed a dancer sitting on a customer’s lap, while in another booth a performer touched a man’s leg with hers.

So Bar and Eats opens fifth pub – Spirit leased site: Multi-site operator Appetite for Life has opened its fifth So Bar and Eats site at the former Black Bull in Ripon – and their first Spirit leased venue. The brand has been created by husband-and-wife team Rob and Alison Thompson, who have made a £185,000 joint investment with Spirit in their latest site.

Noble Inns open fourth site – to positive Fay Maschler review: Noble Inns, the emerging star of the London gastro-pub scene headed by former Pitcher & Piano managers Scott Hunter and Maria Larsen, have opened its fourth pub, The Smokehouse in Islington, the company’s second Punch Taverns site. London Evening Standard food critic Fay Maschler gave the restaurant four stars this week. She stated: “Because I visited at the tail end of a soft opening I found a questionnaire handed out. I’ll just answer one. “Was Smokehouse somewhere you would return to?” Most definitely.” Neil Rankin, the former chef at John Salt, is in charge of the kitchen. Noble Inns also operates the The Princess of Shoreditch, The Lady Ottoline near Chancery Lane, and The Pig and Butcher in Islington.

Fuller’s wins design recognition: Fuller’s, the London brewer and pub operator, has been shortlisted in the prestigious international Restaurant & Bar Design Awards for The Tokenhouse pub. The news follows further design success for Fuller’s after The Parcel Yard at King’s Cross station and company’s own coffee brand, Brewer Street Coffee, won two Red Dot awards in the Communication Design 2013 category. To create the brand identities for the Brewer Street Coffee brand and The Parcel Yard pub, Fuller’s worked with Designers Anonymous. Imagery featuring the ceramic tiles used in old London street signs was used as part of the coffee brand’s design to create a link between coffee brewing and Fuller’s brewing heritage. Fuller’s chief executive Simon Emeny said: “We’re delighted that two of our newest pub businesses have been recognised in this way, along with our Brewer Street Coffee brand. All three were really important projects for the company, where design played a key role.”

Pret A Manger to open third site in Boston Massachusetts: Pret A Manger is to open its third sire in Boston Massachusetts at 855 Boylston Street, on the site of former Eastern Mountain Sports store. The chain is looking to open in the Harvard Square area next.

Punch Taverns second Champs sports bar opening pushed back to September: Punch Taverns and Sheffield multi-site operator Danny Grayson have delayed the opening of a second Champs sport bar to September. The pair will co-invest around £500,000 in converting the Yew Tree in Hillsborough to Champs and an August opening was planned – planning delays have pushed the opening back until next month. Punch and Grayson re-opened The Ecclesall on Ecclesall Road pub as Champs on 4 August last year. Grayson said: “Punch has been absolutely unbelievable – fantastic to work with. The company has treated me like royalty. I know you hear horror stories but working with Punch has been a real partnership.” The first Champs site, a modern re-invention of the sports bar with 31 plasma screens showing sports and offering an American themed menu, is up 194% up in like-for-like sales terms on the previous year – weekly takings average £25,000. The next opening takes place in a pub with a larger trading footprint close to the Sheffield Wednesday ground. Grayson said: “It has a massive car park and this second Champs has two levels.”

£300,000 St Ives investment on hold until Wetherspoon plans are clarified: Plans to give a St Ives town centre pub a £300,000 makeover have been put on hold until JD Wetherspoon intentions for the town are clarified. Alison Purchas and her husband, Michael, who also own the Golden Lion in St Ives, bought the nearby Robin Hood in late 2011 and closed it in March last year. The plan had been to revamp the pub. Mrs Purchas said: “We were looking at putting £300,000 into renovating the listed building to make it viable in the long-term, which is what we want in St Ives,” said Mrs Purchas. “If Wetherspoon opens and builds a super pub up to modern-day standards, it would mean the end of the Robin Hood and I don’t see how any pubs in the town could compete. We can’t stop Wetherspoon – no one can as they are huge – but we would like assurances from planners that Wetherspoon would have to buy an existing licensed premise.” JD Wetherspoon is also said to be looking at a place in Princes Street, Huntingdon. A spokesman said they remain interested in the central areas of both towns.

Ink nightclub to open in Leicester Square: Nightclub entrepreneur Gerry Calabrese is open Ink nightclub in Leicester Square in September. It’s described as an East End Club in the heart of the West End and is open seven days a week from 6pm-3am. The venue is described as born from a love of tattoos, good music and creative cocktails.

Presto bakery chain dips into the red: Presto, the bakery chain that trades as Pasty Presto with 27 outlets in the West Country, has dipped into the red in its mot recent year. The company reported turnover of £7,889,812 in the year to 25 November 2012 (2011: £7,854,699) with losses of £58,773 compared to a profit of £221,012 the year prior. The company’s administrative costs rose by circa £270,000 as it prepared for the next stage of growth.

Jones Lang LaSalle gives details on three Whitbread transactions: Jones Lang LaSalle has announced the completion of two hotel funding acquisitions of Premier Inn buildings in central London and the forward funding sale of a Premier Inn in Winchester. Acting on behalf of Standard Life Investment, Jones Lang LaSalle acquired Premier Inn Goodman’s Fields, Aldgate. The proposed 250-bed hotel was bought on a forward commitment basis at a price of £39 million reflecting a net initial yield of 5.50%. In addition, on behalf of CBRE Global Investors, the agent has acquired a 90-bedroom Premier Inn in Dalston on a forward funding basis at a price of £9 million which reflects a net initial yield of 5.65%. Outside of the capital, Jones Lang LaSalle has completed on a £9.2 million sale of a Premier Inn forward funding in Winchester on behalf of Reef Estates. The 101-bedroom hotel was sold to AXA Real Estate at a net initial yield of 5.45% According to Jones Lang LaSalle, the price achieved reflects a new benchmark for the funding of a regional Premier Inn. Will Duffey, senior vice president in Jones Lang LaSalle’s Hotels and Hospitality Group, said: "These transactions emphasise the strong investor demand for the Whitbread covenant. Premier Inn continues to go from strength to strength, with the aim of creating an estate of 75,000 bedrooms by 2018.”

Antic London postpones Forest Gate opening after Bohemia closure: London pub operator Antic London has postponed the opening of its new pub in London’s Forest Gate. The Railway Tavern, which has been renamed The Forest Tavern, was due to open next Thursday (29 August), but is now expected to open a week later on Thursday 5 September. On the company’s Facebook page a statement reads: “Due to the sudden and unexpected closure of Bohemia and the very sad closure of Catford Bridge Tavern, we are putting the date of the opening of Forest Tavern back to the 5 September. All our teams have had to set to with the closures leaving The Forest Tavern a little short of hands.”

Growler brewery buys first tied pub: The Growler Brewery, formerly the Nethergate Brewery, based in Pentlow, Essex, has bought the Waggon and Horses pub in Sudbury, Suffolk. The Waggon and Horses closed earlier this year, but is due to reopen in October after a six-week refurbishment in what is believed to be the brewery’s first tied house. Growler Brewery’s managing director, Rob Flanagan, told The East Anglian Daily Times the company was excited to be taking on the Waggon and Horses. He said: “We feel there’s a lot of passion for the pub locally and people remember it as a once thriving business. It is not an easy trade to be in but I believe that if you run a pub well and give people what they want, then you have a decent chance of it working. We will be trying to give people lots of reasons to use the pub and we aim to put it back into the heart of the local community.” Growler won the champion speciality beer of Britain award at the Great British Beer Festival last week for the third time with its Umbel Magner porter with coriander. The new manager at the Waggon and Horses, Paul Harper said the reopened pub would be selling a big range of beers, including 30 bottled varieties, and serving freshly prepared home-cooked meals. “We aim to retain the essence of what’s already there in terms of the building but to freshen it up and extend it,” he said.

Bath nightclub re-opens with new name: A Bath nightclub which had to fight to keep its licence last year has been given a new look. The Blue Rooms, in George Street, will open tonight under the new name of Zero Zero. City businessman Kambiz Shayegan, who owns the club, has appointed new management to run the venue. The relaunch comes after a difficult 12 months for the club. Last year police launched an investigation into criminal activity, which included drug dealing, antisocial behaviour, violence and theft, and resulted in a number of people being convicted for dealing cocaine.

Micro-pub set for Worthing: Worthing District Council has granted planning permission for an applicant, Nigel Watson, to transform a former health centre into a pub. Under the agreement for the new establishment, the Anchored in Worthing will not serve food except for the odd bar snack, will have no gaming machines or even a bar. The pub will close at 8pm Monday to Saturday and at 3pm on Sunday. In his application for permission, Watson wrote: “A micro-pub is an establishment far removed from the modern concept of what a pub is. Indeed it is almost a step back in time.”

KFC plan to convert former Orchid pub is blocked: An application to open a KFC outlet on the site of a historic pub has been thrown out after Epsom and Ewell Borough Council’s planning committee decided it would cause severe traffic problems. The company had planned to convert the former Orchid pub Organ and Dragon in London Road into a restaurant with takeaway service. KFC required a change of use licence to move it from A3/A4 pub and restaurant permission to A3/A5 restaurant and takeaway permission. However, councillors defied a recommendation from their own officers to pass the application with limitations on takeaway opening hours, and the proposal was instead refused by ten votes to two.

Multiple operator Eddie Geater introduces micro-brewery at Elland pub: Yorkshire multiple operator Eddie Geater has introduced a micro-brewery at his Barge & Barrel pub in Elland, which is owned by Punch Taverns. Real ale aficionado and licensee Andrew Firth says “the addition of our own brews is the icing on the cake”. Since re-opening the pub in November 2011, lessees Greg Wright and Eddie Geater, who runs Licensed Partnership with an estate of 17 pubs, have built a loyal cask ale following in the pub and are now taking the business further by introducing the micro brewery ales. Geater, who has previously won awards for his cask creations as a trained brewer, said: “We were looking for a site with real ale potential, where we could brew to our own award-winning recipes.”

Wadworth selling town centre site: Wadworth Brewery plans to sell off the site of its wines and spirits warehouse and shire horse stables in Devizes town centre. The warehouse building, Kennet House, is in Northgate Street on a site of just over an acre. All the buildings are on the market through estate agents Strakers. Other buildings on the site include a vehicle workshop, carpenter’s workshop, sign workshop and two houses which are rented out. If a buyer can be found all the Wadworth services would move to its main building in Northgate Street and no jobs are expected to be lost.

La Bodega Negra owner in Soho vows to retain neon signs: The owner of La Bodega Negra restaurant in Soho has vowed to retain neon signs that hark back to the area’s red light district heritage despite council bosses ordering him to remove them. The signs – which read “peep show” and “adult video” – were installed outside La Bodega Negra early last year as a “homage” to the area’s history. But Westminster City Council has issued the Old Compton Street restaurant with a discontinuance notice. Restaurant owner Will Ricker told The London Evening Standard: “They have completely failed to mention that it was the centre of the capital’s sex industry, which made Soho famous globally and a tourist attraction. And now as it slowly changes away from that, we wanted to make a statement that paid homage to the cultural importance of that epoch. Particularly as its remnants are being eradicated by landlords, the council and technology, the neons are a remnant of a vanishing, golden era that should be celebrated, not forgotten.”

Pub for ‘middle class, middle-aged real ale drinkers’ approved: A new pub designed for “middle class, middle-aged real ale drinkers” was given licensing approval by Bury St Edmunds councillors yesterday despite protests from local residents. Susan Wilde, the applicant behind the new pub, to be called the Oakes Barns and built in Andrew Street South, told the Bury Free Press: “I can sympathise with what people have written about trouble from late night revellers and people being sick in the street but we hope our clientele won’t be anything like that. We anticipate our clientele will be middle class, middle-aged real ale drinkers and tourists.” Wilde said she wanted the pub to be a community hub and something unlike any existing pubs. “James Oakes was an historical figure in Bury and the oldest part of the building used to be his stables so we hope to attract tourists.”

Walkabout operator Intertain reports Ebitda of £5,264,000: Walkabout operator Intertain has reported Ebitda of £5,264,000 (2012: £4,880,000) in the year to 2 February. Sales were £57,580,000, which are £5,726,000 lower than the year before due to the surrender of three loss-making sites in Portsmouth, Edinburgh and West Hampstead – and the discontinuation of Highlight comedy clubs at Walkabouts in Glasgow and Leicester. Operating profit before exceptional items was £1,976,000, up from £1,237,000 the year before. The company made a loss of £4,880,000 (£2,366,000) after exceptional items of £5,408,000. Intertain reported that the company received a £1 million sales boost from the Euro 2012 tournament. It invested a total of £2,346,000 in refurbishing six sites, of which £250,000 was funded by landlords’ rent concessions. The company stated: “Overall returns from the investments are exceptional at 67% on a gross basis and 81% net of landlords’ contributions. Of the 11 investments (so far), all but three are currently delivering returns that will see the investment paid back in less than two and a half years. Business performance in the 26 weeks subsequent to the end of the reporting period has been heavily influenced by the sporting calendar. The additional sales from Euro 2012 of just over £1 million will not be replaced by any other event. Accordingly, sales from continuing venues in the first half of the period to January 2014 are 9.7% below last year, of which approximately 7% reduction is estimated to be due to differences in the sports calendar. Refurbished venues, as a group, achieved sales relative to last year 12% better than non-refurbished. Most of the refurbished sites have been trading for more than a year so it is extremely encouraging that they are able to sustain performance in this way and in dong so further improve the return on investment.” Intertain, which runs 36 sites, reported that trading is expected to start again at its fire-destroyed Blackpool site at the end of October this year.