Restaurant company owners accused of tax avoidance: The Independent newspaper has accused a host of restaurant companies of using the controversial Eurobonds scheme to reduce tax. The newspaper has claimed Nando’s, Tragus, Pret A Manger and Gondola Holdings have reduced their tax liability by borrowing from their owners through the Channel Islands Stock Exchange. It is claimed that the companies’ owners lend money and the interest on the loans is tax free because the loans are listed on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange. The Independent claimed PizzaExpress owner Gondola has avoided as much as £77m in UK corporation tax since it was acquired by Cinven in 2006. It stated: “Cinven loaned Gondola more than £300m at a 12.5% interest rate and invested only £8m in equity. Instead of receiving the interest payments on the loans each year, Cinven has allowed it to accrue on the debt, compounding the amount taken off Gondola’s profits each year. When Cinven sells Gondola, it can receive the £276.8m it is owed tax free. Gondola’s UK corporation tax bill last year was only £200,000 after an operating profit of £39m. In 2011, it recorded a tax credit of £5.8m.” The Independent claims Tragus Group has avoided £13m in tax after accruing more £47.7m in interest on the 17% Eurobonds it owes owner Blackstone. Gondola told the newspaper: “Our structure is in line with a significant proportion of UK companies. We are also a substantial contributor to the UK, having paid £200m in taxes in the last three years, created 3,200 British jobs and invested £300m in the last six years.” Tragus also said it complied with all legislation.

SIBA looks at changing ‘local’ to ‘craft’: SIBA, the Society of Independent Brewers, is discussing with its members the possibility of changing the words “local beer” in its logo to “craft beer”. The proposal comes as one leading small brewer, James Watt of Brewdog, has called for an “official” definition of craft beer in the UK, to be endorsed by organisations such as SIBA and the Campaign for Real Ale, that would allegedly prevent big international brewers such as Coors from supposedly “passing off” beers such as Blue Moon as “craft” products. Keith Bott, boss of the Titanic Brewery and chairman of SIBA, said the proposal to drop “local” from the organisation’s logo and replace it with “craft” had been raised at a SIBA council meeting and was now going out to regional members for discussion. He said: “We don’t believe it’s our role to define craft beer, though any member of SIBA is by definition a craft brewer. However, ‘local beer’ does define what most of our members do, and we don’t want to lose that for something less relevant. But ultimately the consumer is the right person to decide what is and isn’t craft. What matters to me is whether the consumer enjoys it, no matter what it’s called.” Last week, Brewdog founder James Watt argued: “I categorically believe we need to define craft beer in order to protect the fledgling craft beer movement in the UK and in Europe. I believe if we do not look to put an industry-recognised definition on craft beer then the large, monolithic brewers will simply exploit all that we have worked so hard to build.”

Trade groups campaign for extension of small business relief: Five trade bodies, including the British Beer and Pubs Association (BBPA) and CAMRA, have joined together to challenge the burden of business rates on Britain’s pubs, with a direct approach to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, on Small Business Rate Relief. This comes as a new Early Day Motion from the MP Charlotte Leslie has been tabled in Parliament. The motion calls for an extension of Small Business Rate Relief, better promotion of rural rate relief to encourage take-up, and a review of the revaluation system for pubs. In their letter to the Chancellor, the associations call for the extension of Small Business Rate Relief beyond April 2014 in the Autumn Statement, removing the potential for a damaging, £27m rates increase on a recovering sector. The BBPA’s chief executive, Brigid Simmonds, said: “The end of relief is a ticking time bomb which will cost Britain’s pubs £27m, something they can ill afford.”

NY Times finds Balthazar serves 1,500 customers a day: The New York Times spent 22 hours at Balthazar in New York and found it serves 1,500 people a day. One in ten guests order Balthazar’s famous steak frites, as many as 200 orders a day. Waiters earned an average of $345 in tips on top of the $5 they are paid per hour. 

Sky partners Twitter with sports clips: Sky has partnered with Twitter to share video highlights from Uefa Champions League football games in real time. Starting yesterday with three Champions League games including Barcelona against Milan, the Sky Sports Twitter account will share highlights including instant replays of the best goals and post-match interviews. The aim of the project, which comes as Twitter is expected soon to embark on its investor roadshow, is to promote Sky’s sports channels and its internet service, Now TV.

Street Feast seeks ‘semi-permanent’ site for street food market: Street Feast, the East London-based street food market organiser, is co-operating with Boxpark, the “pop-up” shopping mall in Shoreditch, London to find a semi-permanent home. The plan is for Street Feast to have a more permanent home than the mixture of sites, including a car park, a brewery, a warehouse, an old tube station and a builders’ merchants, than it has had since it started in May last year. Roger Wade, the founder of Boxpark, in Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, said that like Boxpark, a semi-permanent Street Feast would use former shipping containers to provide homes for its retailers. Wade said he was looking for a site of between 10,000 sq ft and 100,000 sq ft. Boxpark itself, as well as being home to 30 or so fashion retailers and the like, houses some ten or 11 food and drink retailers, including Simply Fish and Cottons Rhum Shack. Wade said the new Street Feast site would be purely dedicated to food but would build on the success of the food offering at Boxpark. He said: “I love the Street Feast concept. We are not a run-of-the-mall retail developer, and we want to help develop new, exciting concepts like Street Feast.”

Six Belhaven sites among 20 in Dundee to apply for later hours: A new licensing policy has seen 20 Dundee pubs and clubs apply to stay open later at weekends. The council’s licensing committee adopted a new policy last month that lets pubs stay open until 1am, “hybrid” venues until 2am and nightclubs until 3am on Friday and Saturday nights. However, each venue must apply for extensions individually. The pubs and clubs involved are spread across the city, with six of them owned by the Greene King subsidiary Belhaven. The applications will go before councillors in November. Luminar’s Liquid nightclub is one of two nightclubs applying to stay open until 3am, the other being Number Twenty-Five on South Tay Street.

McDonald’s to launch tiered value menu in challenged US market: McDonald’s executives have argued that the dining-out environment around the world would remain “challenged” in the fourth quarter and require compelling value platforms, including the national rollout of the Dollar Menu & More in the US. More than 14,000 restaurants in the US will replace the Dollar Menu with the Dollar Menu & More offering on 4 November. The expanded, tiered value menu, which was tested in five markets this year, will offer $1 items from the Dollar Menu, as well as burgers at prices around $2 and shareable items around a $5 price point. Chief executive Don Thompson said: “This is one of the ways that we can maintain the Dollar Menu in the face of rising commodity and labour pressures, but also get a little more margin basis on some of the products at $2 and some of the products at higher price points”. It singled out the UK’s performance during this time, citing the “successful” launches of McCafe iced smoothies and frappes as a “significant step” in its efforts to become a beverage destination in the UK. The business unified its premium drinks and sweet snacks under its McCafe sub-brand nationwide last week in a bid to spearhead the strategy. Thompson added: “Technology is going to be a big part of our future, particularly digital engagement with consumers. And so you’ll hear us and see us talk much more about digital engagement with consumers. The other thing that you’ll see change a bit is we are being much stronger relative to communicating about our brand, communicating about our food. Customers want to hear more about transparency. They want to hear about provenance and where the food is from.”

Pub People Company reports pre-tax profit up, trials Orderella app: Pub People Company Holdings, the East Midland operator led by Kevin Sammons, has reported total turnover of £11.5m in the year to 31 March, down 1% from £11.6m the year before. Pre-tax profit in its subsidiary Pub People Company, which runs all its leasehold sites, was £119,000, up from £112,100 the year before. Turnover was up 1.7% to £9.76m from £9.6m the year before with gross profit the same at 55.1%. Pub People Company is trialling a new app, Orderella, that allows customers to pre-order their drinks and food on their iPhone or iPad. The app has already been trialed by Fuller Smith and Turner and the Nottingham-based brewer and retailer Castle Rock Brewery.

Greene King wins consent for new Cloverleaf site: Greene King has won planning consent from South Gloucestershire Council for a new “Cloverleaf” site – now called Farmhouse Inns – to be built at the Vantage Office Park in the south-east corner of Bradley Stoke. The site, on the corner of Winterbourne Road and Old Gloucester Road, is currently vacant but has outline planning permission for office use. Greene King has obtained consent for a 1,163 sq m “amenity restaurant” that will operate under the Farmhouse Inns brand. The company says that up to 70 jobs will be created at the new development, of which half will be part-time. A total of 92 parking spaces will be provided, together with space for 20 bicycles. Greene King said the new restaurant will be “predominately a place to meet and eat”, with food representing 65 to 75% of sales. “Distraction facilities” will be provided for children and there will be specific areas for informal business meetings.

No Saints to appeal against Birmingham Oceana decision: No Saints, the company headed by nightclub veteran Stephen Thomas, is to appeal against a decision to block a licence for the former Oceana in Birmingham, which the company wanted to re-open as a Wonderland venue. No Saints had been approached by the venue’s landlord offering to invest in the site if it could be re-licensed – it saw an estimated £6m investment when it was originally opened. However, police raised fears over a history of violence, firearms offences and the death of a customer at the site. City centre licensing officer PC Abdool Rohoman said the venue had been a drain on police resources.

Michelin-starred pub chef opens second site: Andrew Pern, who won a Michelin star at the Star in Harome, North Yorkshire, in 2001, has opened his second site, a former waterworks building in York’s Museum Gardens, which is called Star Inn The City. The 130-seater restaurant was unveiled to the public last night in the converted engine shed building next to Lendal Bridge. Almost 5,000 bookings have already been taken, and the restaurant is aiming to be fully operational by 1 November. Pern said: “It has always been a bit of a dream to open somewhere with more volume. We will be flying the flag for Yorkshire, using all local produce, with all the staff from the York area.”

Leeds Brewery to expand production after finance deal: Leeds Brewery, now the biggest brewer in its home city, is to expand its production capacity after a £395,000 financing deal arranged with Santander Corporate and Commercial. The extra money has also helped the brewery open its first pub outside Leeds, the Duke of York, in the centre of York, taking its tied estate to seven. Leeds, founded by Michael Brothwell and Sam Moss in 2007, makes cask, keg and bottled beers, and currently produces around 240 barrels a week, or 12,000 a year. Moss said: “We are passionate about brewing high-quality beers and running high quality pubs and we are pleased to have secured the funding that we need to continue to grow our business.” Drew Haymes, relationship director for Santander Corporate and Commercial, who arranged the finance deal, said: “We are delighted to support this tremendously vibrant, local business which has strong roots in Leeds and is now expanding into York. Michael and Sam are highly experienced, driven and prudent directors and have overseen a terrific period of growth and increasing demand for their products. I am looking forward to working with them during this very exciting time for their business.”

Four more PizzaExpress sites for Mumbai: Four more franchised PizzaExpress sites are to open in Mumbai before Christmas, design director Mark Standing has told Premier Construct Magazine. He said: “We have a very ambitious refurbishment programme in place and well underway. We are looking at around 35 to 40 of our restaurants being transformed for our customers in the near future. We also now have a lot of developments happening on an international scale after opening our first restaurant in India. We can look forward to another four openings in Mumbai before Christmas. There is a lot happening and it is a very exciting time for all involved as PizzaExpress continues to expand.”

Premier Inn scores 4.3 on TripAdvisor: Whitbread’s chief executive, Andy Harrison, has reported that Premier Inn is scoring an average 4.3 out of five across its 660 Premier inn sites. He said: “In April 2011, we established an ambitious milestone to grow the number of Premier Inn rooms in the UK by around 50% to 65,000 by 2016. Today we have a total of 53,039 UK rooms, which, combined with our committed pipeline of over 10,500 rooms, puts our 2016 milestone in sight. In April 2013, we announced a new five-year milestone to reach around 75,000 rooms by 2018. This includes 3,000 rooms of our new compact city centre hotel brand, Hub by Premier Inn. We continue to make good progress in growing the pipeline for Hub and construction has started at the St Martins Lane, London site, which is expected to open in the second half of next year. This year we expect to open around 4,000 new Premier Inn rooms and add a further circa 4,500 new rooms in 2014/15. Our performance is underpinned by our focus on delivering great customer satisfaction through the quality and consistency of our product and service, the best choice of locations and great value for money. 69% of guests in our ‘Guest Recommend Survey’ rate their stay nine or ten out of ten. Furthermore, Premier Inn also represents the best value for money in the midscale and economy sector, as demonstrated by the YouGov Brand Index Survey.”

Whitbread’s pub restaurants see 9.9% increase in breakfasts: Whitbread has reported flat sales in its pub restaurants, with covers down 2.4% and spend per head up 3.4%, though breakfast sales were up 9.9% year-on-year. Total sales were up 2.9% to £269m. Chief executive Andy Harrison said: “Our ‘Guest Recommend Survey’, capturing feedback from some 234,000 customers, has shown an improving trend over the past three years. Mitigating inflation remains a challenge and like for like site contribution margins were impacted by circa 0.8% in the first half.”

Crown Estate hails St James’s restaurant openings: The Crown Estate, the modern incarnation of the monarch’s own property holdings, and still one of Britain’s biggest landlords, has hailed the launch of five new restaurants in the St James’s area of central London before Christmas, reviving the area’s historic legacy as a centre of dining and entertaining excellence in London. The openings include the return of Angela Harnett to the building where she trained under Marcus Wareing at Gordon Ramsay’s Petrus, in what will now be Café Murano. Another opening is Chop Shop, at 66 Haymarket involving Will Guess and Ahmass Fakahnay of the American high end restaurant group Altamarea. Restaurateur Joel Kissen said he chose to open his new French restaurant Boulestin on St James’s Street, a revival of the 1927 restaurant run by the chef Marcel Boulestin, because St James’s “shares the same prestigious reputation, vibrant atmosphere and clientele as Mayfair, but is not so overdeveloped’. A fourth opening, on Regent Street, is by the pinxtos specialist Bilbao Berria, which is opening its first UK restaurant, headed by the 2011 Masterchef winner Ash Mair. Finally, Phillipe Le Roux who successfully brought Le Pain de Quotidien to the UK, is set to open the first Villandry under his ownership at the south end of Regent Street this November. Anthea Harries, St James’s portfolio manager for the Crown Estate, said: “Our investment in St James’s has redefined its offer for future generations, providing quality restaurants and destination dining at a range of prices that stand the test of time and meet the needs of the St James’s diner.”

Luke Johnson sees drop in value of Clear Leisure stake: Sector investor Luke Johnson saw a sharp drop in the value of his 13.9% stake in Clear Leisure yesterday after the company reported financial irregularities in its African hotel and travel business. Clear Leisure’s share price fell 43% to 1.63p. Johnson stepped down as non-executive chairman of the business four days ago, citing “other work commitments”.

Whitbread says Costa’s lead over Caffe Nero and Starbucks increasing, opens first Paris site: Whitbread has reported that Costa Coffee’s lead over Starbucks and Caffe Nero has grown in the first half of 2013 in terms of consumer preference. A YouGov study asked consumer which their first choice would be if the brands were side-by-side – 36% chose Costa (2012: 34%), 17% chose Starbucks (2012: 17%) and 11% chose Caffe Nero. The company reported 70% of the Costa estate is now new or been refurbished in the past three years – and its Net Promoter Score has risen 9% in the past year. The company said its first site opened in Paris on 16 October and it has installed 582 net new Costa Express units during the first half, taking the total to 3,142. It also now operates 126 machines in Poland.

Titanic ‘looking for more pubs to bring back from the brink’: Titanic Brewery of Staffordshire, which has just opened its eighth pub, the Cheshire Cheese in Buxton, Derbyshire, says that in 2014 it will continue to look for local pubs to run and “bring back from the brink”. The Cheshire Cheese, which was bought in June this year by Everards, the Leicester-based brewer and pub owner, is being run by Titanic under Everard’s Project William scheme, which sees it lease out pubs to microbrewers. Titanic and Everards pioneered Project William in 2007 when the Staffordshire brewer took on Everards’ Greyhound in Newcastle-under-Lyme, which became its second pub. Keith Bott, who founded Titanic, said that like many of Titanic’s pubs, the Cheshire Cheese was a traditionally successful pub that had fallen on hard times. “The Cheshire Cheese is a pub full of character and we have made sympathetic changes to make it as welcoming as possible to customers,” Bott said. “In 2014 we will continue to look for more sites where we can bring great community locals back from the brink. We passionately believe that good pubs foster positive community spirit and are part of the fabric of British society.”

Salt to double up in Cornwall: Local Cornish brand Salt, which already operates in Hayle, is to open a second site in Truro. Owner Toby Hume-Rothery is hoping to open next spring. He said: “It’s a local brand which focuses on Cornish sourced and homemade food, notably fish and grill. We are a cafe environment during the day, changing to food-led in the evening, with a good wine and cocktail selection.” A Loungers site will be opening in Truro before Christmas. The new openings follow the opening of the New York grill style Mustard and Rye on Calenick Street and the cocktail bar The Nightjar on Old Bridge Street.

Enterprise Inns loses planning appeal: An appeal by Enterprise Inns to extend a 70-year-old pub in Weston super Mare, which protesters believed would lead the way for a Tesco take-over, has been rejected. The Planning Inspectorate announced its decision to dismiss the appeal on the grounds of car parking and road safety. Enterprise Inns had applied to North Somerset Council to extend the pub last year. Residents opposed the extension of a single storey and viewed it as an attempt to make the site more appealing to Tesco. Councillors agreed and rejected what they described as a “Trojan horse” proposal, leading Enterprise to lodge an appeal in May.

Australian entrepreneur beats Costa to open Edinburgh’s first coffee drive-thru: An Australian businessman has beaten Costa Coffee by opening Edinburgh’s first drive-through coffee shop. Geoff Box, who moved to the UK to work for the engineering giant Honeywell, opened his first Coffee Drive outlet on Duddingston Park South last week. He aims to open a further two outlets in Edinburgh in the next year before looking to franchise the business into other areas. Box said: “In Australia, we had drive-through everything – fast food shops, bottle shops (off licences) and coffee shops. I couldn’t understand why people have to park their cars and then walk into a shop to get coffee when they could have a drive-through instead.” Box launched his company after securing a £25,000 loan from DSL Business Finance in Glasgow, a community development finance institution that lends to small firms finding it hard to access bank lending. Costa also plans to open a drive-thru in Edinburgh.

Fish restaurant seeks second outlet: An application to convert the former NatWest bank in Braunton, North Devon into a restaurant has been submitted by the owners of an existing establishment in the village, Squire’s Fish Restaurant. The plans involve extending the building on Exeter Road to create a new bar and restaurant over two floors with an outdoor terrace area. It would employ between 15 and 25 people. Braunton Parish Council has voted in favour of the plans, which are awaiting a decision from North Devon Council. The building has been vacant since the bank departed in November 2011.

Spirit – we’re starting our acquisition stage: Spirit Pub Company has told City analysts that it will now start buying new freehold pubs to add to its Fayre and Square and Flaming Grill brands as it aims to expand to 1,500 pubs. The company said it would begin buying pubs in its second quarter – at the end of this year – and is looking for a 20% return on its investments. Spirit declined to give precise numbers for acquisitions but its target size is around 270 pubs bigger than its current size. The move to start to buy pubs comes because Spirit feels that it had moved beyond the “stabilisation” stage for its estate and into the “optimisation” part of its journey. Chief executive Mike Tye said that there is now “an opportunity to acquire pubs” to “leverage fixed costs, brand and skills”, with each of its brands capable of growing to 200 sites without risk of cannibalisation. “We’re now ready to begin expanding the estate again,” he said. Food sales now stand at 44% of managed sales and average pub sales have increased by £2,000 per week per pub in the last two years. Tye said that Spirit will continue to evolve and flex its brands’ portfolio as the market evolves. Its Taylor Walker pubs would be evolved to become slightly more premium, particularly at sites that attract fewer tourists. The Chef & Brewer estate “needs to shift slightly” in the direction of premium without alienating its mid-market core customer. “They will not become gastro-pubs,” Tye said. More Premium Pub and Dining sites will be added in the 2014 financial year to join the existing two pubs trading within the segment to “optimise Spirit’s very affluent London village locations”. Within Fayre & Square, Spirit will continue to “accentuate the (value) price credentials of the brand”. Flaming Grill will be re-positioned slightly to “a clear price-focused model”, with a number of John Barras community pubs switched to the Flaming Grill “lite” model, which requires around 50% of the investment involved in a full Flaming Grill conversion. Tye told City analysts that he thought that around 40 of the company’s 225 John Barras locals pub would switch to other brands. He reported that the company had hired an “innovation manager” who has been looking at how John Barras pubs could segment further. Early work on new neighbourhood concepts had researched well, Tye said.