Punch creditors draft alternative plan: Punch Taverns bondholders are working on an alternative plan to restructure the company’s debt pile. It has emerged that Rothschild, which is advising an Association of British Insurers’ committee representing senior bondholders, is putting together alternative proposals along with advisers at Moelis & Company and Lazard. One source claimed the alternative deal has a “broad base of support from senior and junior lender groups across the different classes of debt”. Plans drawn up by Punch will be put to vote on Friday 14 February and several bondholders with blocking votes have already stated they will not support the plan as it currently stands. Punch Taverns executive chairman Stephen Billingham has warned that administrative receivership of the company would take years to sort out should the company’s bondholders not support current restructuring proposals. He told The Telegraph: “It just ends up with a mess. I have real concerns that nobody has an alternative out there that is realistic or sensible. The same people we have been negotiating with up to now are the same people sitting there in the [debt] structure. The whole debate is among the same people in administration as to what happens. An administrative receivership of this company could last four to five years, it could last longer. We can’t see, post a default, a very simple way these structures would get sorted out.”

Peter Borg-Neal to present at first Propel conference of 2014: Peter Borg-Neal, founder and chief executive of the award-winning Oakman Inns and Restaurants, talks about raising money through an Enterprise Investment Scheme, banks, blending pub and restaurant offer, design and plans for 2014 at the first Propel Multi Club Conference of 2014. The event will be held on Thursday 13 March at the Lancaster London Hotel, Lancaster Gate, central London. Multi-site pub, restaurant and foodservice companies can claim up to two free places each but Propel is now running a waiting list. E-mail jo.charity@propelinfo.com to go on the waiting list.

Bankers discover taste for food entrepreneurship: The foodservice start-up consultant Monique Borst has reports that 20% of the 130 company founders she has advised have left jobs in finance to become entrepreneurs, by far the most common professional background among her client list. “Founders of food businesses coming out of finance often have funding to development stage, and access to start-up capital,” she said. “However, they typically struggle to engage others into their idea, because they’re used to a world where secrecy is very important.” The co-founder of Coco di Mama, Daniel Land, who worked in the broking team at Merrill Lynch, said: “Bankers are naturally curious about the businesses they use most frequently. They like to discuss the businesses that they use and therefore I think it is natural that some, myself included, become excited by the potential in such an exciting industry.”

Three wine companies join industry VAT campaign: Three wine companies have joined the VAT Club Jacques Borel, backing the campaign for a reduction on the level of VAT in the hospitality sector to 5% on drink and food. The companies are all connected via the importer Hatch Mansfield, Villa Maria Estate and Grant Burges Wines being key suppliers to the firm. It takes the number of companies aligned to the campaign to 58. Villa Maria’s founder and owner, Sir George Fistonich, said: “I am delighted to add my support to the campaign, which is key to the pub and restaurant industry. Pubs have been closing across the UK for too long and I welcome the VAT Club campaign, which aims to provide a stimulus to people drinking and eating in the safe and pleasant environment of a pub or restaurant.” VAT cut campaigner Jacques Borel said: “I am delighted that these important wine companies have joined VAT Club JB. Their inclusion within the VAT Club strengthens our position and highlights the importance of the campaign.”

Eataly eyes listing in 2017: Italian food chain Eataly, which is looking to open in Selfridges, on Oxford Street in London, in 2016, plans a stock market listing by 2017 after completing a project to open restaurants, founder Oscar Farinetti has said. Farinetti outlined a plan to open Eataly branches in cities in Europe and around the world before listing in 2016 or 2017. “It is clear that we should go down this path, but there is no hurry,” Farinetti told reporters who asked him if and when the company would sell shares publicly. The company’s base at Rome’s railway station Terminal Ostiense, a 16,000 square metre space comprising food shops, restaurants and areas where people can take lessons about food, produced revenue of €60m (£50m) in the first year after its opening, Farinetti said. The most recent opening in Chicago saw the business forced to close for a day to re-stock such was the demand. US partner Lidia Bastianich said: “The first week we had to close one day because they ate us out of house and home. We had to replenish.” Propel Info and the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers will be taking a group of 41 UK foodservice executives to the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago in May. The trip will include two day-long study tours, including a visit to Eataly, Chicago.

Brick Lane curry house owners fear council’s midnight curfew: Owners of restaurants in Brick Lane, East London are warning that an attempt by Tower Hamlets Council to impose a midnight curfew will wreck the capital’s curry heartland. Council officers have visited 60 curry houses along Brick Lane telling them that planning rules mean they must stop serving at midnight or face a £20,000 fine. The council says that even restaurants with licences to serve food and drink beyond midnight must now stick to planning rules which say premises must close at midnight to reduce “anti-social behaviour”. In a letter, the council said: “It may be your licensing hours are not the same as the opening hours specified by the planning condition. In cases such as this it is the earlier closing time that you must adhere to.” If the restaurants do not shut at midnight, they face fines of up to £20,000 at a magistrates’ court or an unlimited fine at a crown court. However, Brick Lane’s restaurateurs say they rely on their late-night trade for up to a third of their total income, and the curfew would force many to shut for good. Azmal Hussain, who owns four restaurants on Brick Lane that are licensed to sell alcohol and food to either 1am or 2am, told the London Evening Standard he has been told to stop taking orders at 11pm and have everyone out by midnight. “We get a lot of customers during 12pm and 2am. We have no lunch trade so if we have no late night trade how can we survive? I predict 30% of the restaurants will be gone within three months.”

Nick Griffin and Tim Yates wins FBH rugby tickets: Pleisure chief executive Nick Griffin and Grand Union finance director Tim Yates were the lucky winners of tickets to see the England versus Wales rugby union match on 9 March offered by FBH Associates through Propel. A spokesman said: “The tickets offer attracted a very large number of entries and we’d like to thank all those who took part.”

Darwin & Wallace acquires second site: Darwin & Wallace, the bar and restaurant company backed by former Drake & Morgan investor Imbiba Partnership, has acquired its second site, the Frog, in Clapham, South London, overlooking Clapham Common, from Livelyhood Pubs. The company paid a premium of £600,000 for a tied Enterprise lease with a rent of £62,268 a year. Davis Coffer Lyons acted on the deal. DCL has also just sold the freehold interest of The Old Frizzle in Wimbledon to Livelyhood, which was already in occupation at the site, for a figure in the region of £2m. After a “significant” refurbishment, The Frog will be re-launched in the spring under a new name with an all-day casual bar-dining offer. Darwin & Wallace says the new outlet will have “an emphasis on interior aesthetics, a wide-ranging drinks offer including great beers, first-rate service and an accessible home-away-from-home feel”. The company wants to acquire further sites between 5,000 sq ft and 7,000 sq ft, preferably in affluent London “villages” including Chiswick, Chelsea, Kensington, Knightsbridge, Notting Hill, Soho, Fitzrovia, the West End, Hampstead/Haverstock Hill, Camden, Islington and Shoreditch. Darwin & Wallace is the brainchild of managing director Melanie Marriott, formerly brand manager of Mitchells & Butlers’ All Bar One. She said: “The Darwin and Wallace team are all incredibly excited to have acquired this iconic new site in the heart of Clapham old town. We’re looking forward to evolving the space with an imaginative design which will capture the spirit of the area and the people within it.”

Soho House set for July opening in Chicago: Soho House is set to open a site Chicago this July. The venue will be opened over a 1900s warehouse on Green Street and will have 35 bedrooms, a courtyard, an enclosed rooftop bar and kitchen with a 60-foot swimming pool on its deck, and three public restaurants focusing on pizza, burgers, and chicken. The fifth floor will house a drawing room, a bar, and the Club Bar & House Kitchen Grill. On the ground floor, there will be a Cowshed Relax spa and salon that will offer a retail area and five treatment rooms as well a men’s grooming area, and a blow-dry bar.

Luminar invests £1.3m in Leeds but closes Burnley site after footfall drop: Nightclub operator Luminar is to invest £1.3m in converting Oceana in Leeds to its Pryzm brand, creating up to 50 new jobs. Pryzm Leeds will feature three distinctively styled dance rooms and VIP areas under one roof. The venue’s general manager, Jonathon Guest, who has been at the venue in Woodhouse Lane for four months, said: “Oceana Leeds is one of the UK’s most popular nightclubs, attracting up to 5,000 clubbers on a typical trading week. After almost nine successful years in the city, it’s time to reward our loyal customers with an exciting, state-of-the-art club that will literally have the wow factor, securing our title as the most prestigious venue in town.” This will be the first Pryzm in the north, re-opening on Friday 28 March. Meanwhile, Luminar is to close its Lava and Ignite site in Burnley. Northern regional director Tony Gorbert said: “Following a long-term decline in footfall in the town centre, we have taken the difficult decision to close Lava & Ignite in Burnley. If and when local conditions improve, we hope to be in a position to reopen the club. The closure of Burnley will allow us to continue to focus on our strategic priorities, including the investment in our estate.”

Wetherspoon issues invite to meet its international brewers: JD Wetherspoon has issued an invite to the trade media to meet international brewers whose beers are to be featured at the UK-wide Wetherspoon beer festival, between 26 March and 10 April. The event will take place at The Crosse Keys, the Wetherspoon pub at 9 Gracechurch Street, London on Wednesday February 26 from 2.30pm. Brewers from Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Spain, Norway and the United States will be attending. The event includes touring the pub cellar at 4.15pm and an option to go with the brewers to other Wetherspoon pubs from 6pm.

Nando’s opens first site in Abu Dhabi: Nando’s has opened its first site in Abu Dhabi, at the World Trade Centre Mall. Suhail Gidwani, chief executive of Nando’s UAE, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have finally opened our first restaurant in the capital and to have brought the Nando’s experience and peri-peri taste closer to our Abu Dhabi fans.”

‘Legal issues’ delay Bryn Williams bistro in Colwyn Bay: The plan by Welsh celebrity cook Bryn Williams, chef and sole proprietor of Odette’s Restaurant in Primrose Hill, North London, to open a bistro in his native North Wales have been delayed by ‘legal issues’. In September last year Williams, who has appeared on TV programmes such as Great British Menu, announced he would open a bistro at the new Porth Eirias water sports centre at Colwyn Bay. It was due to open in November, then mid-January, but paper work has still not been completed. Conwy Council, which developed Porth Eirias, said “legal issues” had delayed the opening, but plans to open the bistro are still being developed. Graham Rees, the council’s cabinet member for tourism, marketing and leisure said: “I can guarantee that Bryn is coming. I was at Porth Eirias recently, and I was shown boxes and boxes of furniture which belong to Bryn, ready to move in once the legal issues are settled. It’s been complicated to finalise the lease for the bistro part of Porth Eirias, because it’s a new building, constructed on land which was once part of the foreshore. The paperwork is now with our solicitors and with Bryn’s solicitors, so I’m hopeful that things will start to move soon. Bryn’s new bistro will be fantastic news for Colwyn Bay. When it happens, it will be worth the wait.”

Costa criticised by mayor over ‘massive’ sign at hospital: Costa Coffee has been attacked by the Mayor of Bristol over the size of the logo on display at the chain’s new outlet in the welcome centre at Bristol Royal Infirmary. Retailers renting space in the hospital’s welcome centre were told they were not entitled to erect external signs. But because the front of the extension is glazed, the large Costa lettering inside the welcome centre is clearly visible from outside. The Mayor of Bristol, George Ferguson, told the Bristol Post that the sign was “a travesty” and “taking advantage of a planning loophole”. He said: “It’s a huge sign, I mean, it is massive. It’s demeaning to the hospital as a public service and makes me wince time and time again when I walk past it. I’m sure it makes a lot of other people wince too. Many people regard it as offensive and I think the hospital authorities should do something about it. The hospital should at least impose some restrictions.” A Costa spokesperson said: “We will continue to work with local authorities to ensure that all of our signage operates in line with local planning requirements.”

Bar given £550,000 revamp goes on sale for £150,000: A bar in Billericay, Essex that was given a revamp costing £550,000 only 14 months ago is now on the market for just £150,000. The Vetro champagne bar in Western Road closed suddenly earlier this month, with the owners Laurence and Julie Holder, saying they could no longer justify spending money on the business. The refit, in November 2012, included new tinted windows, designer lighting and fittings imported from Italy. More than 100 potential buyers have shown an interest in the bar, which includes a VIP bar, a lounge, main bar and an outside dining terrace. Gerard Biagioni, head of business sales for the estate agent Dedman Gray, said he expected the club to be sold within two months and open again by April. He said he did not believe a national chain would take on the site, though entrepreneurs who already run similar bars elsewhere in Essex have shown an interest. He said: “It’s a staggering development, with no expense spared. People have their own opinions of what it should be used for and they range from the sublime to the ridiculous. The underlying idea seems to be to turn it into a Parisian-style brassiere cafe, offering good quality coffee, breakfast and light lunches for shoppers, moving to a bar menu for the night time, when there would be music and entertainment.”

Work begins ahead of opening of three restaurant brands in Tamworth: Demolition work is now underway to bring three restaurant brands in the UK to the Ventura Park in Tamworth, Staffordshire. Construction workers arrived at the vacant unit formerly occupied by Allied Carpets this week to begin building a Nando’s restaurant on the site. Plans to bring the chain to the town were approved by Tamworth Council in March last year, alongside proposals for a Starbucks coffee shop and PizzaExpress restaurant. The three will join clothes and homeware shops currently trading on the retail park. Councillor Jeremy Oates said: “I think we have to be realistic, Ventura Park has a regional offer while the town centre has a local offer, and people will travel to a PizzaExpress or Nando’s wherever it is.”

Frankie & Benny’s, PizzaExpress, Nando’s and Chiquito’s lined up for Broughton shopping park: Four major brands, Frankie & Benny’s, PizzaExpress, Nando’s and Chiquito’s, are lined up for Broughton Shopping Park in Deeside, North Wales, which will include a 11-screen Cineworld. Broughton councillor Derek Butler said. “There’s no cinema in the area. Most people go to Cheshire Oaks. It’s answered that demand. As county councillors, we’ve tried to get someone to bring a cinema to Deeside for decades but they’ve always said the business case wasn’t there. If they hadn’t have come here, they’d have gone to the Wirral or into Cheshire. The new restaurants are one of the other benefits. These will be the sort of places people go to when they go to the cinema.”

Carlsberg shifts marketing budget away from TV and into social media: Carlsberg, which has just over 15% of the UK beer market, is speeding up a shift in its marketing budget away from traditional arenas such as television and into social media. The brewer says while it still views TV as a key advertising channel, it is focused on measuring and improving social media content in the hopes of using it to drive sales as well as engagement. That content is created by a team of “brand journalists” and then distributed through social media channels by marketers. Martin Majlund, group marketing technologist at Carlsberg, told Marketing Week magazine that the shift was about targeting smaller consumer segments and communities with content that sits at the intersection of the brand’s positioning and cultural relevance, rather than just posting snippets from its latest ad. He said: “We look at social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter as mass media. Why create a TV commercial if you don’t have the money to put it on TV? With this mindset, we’re much more focused on building engagement around our brands. The idea is to put our media spend into areas where we can easily and quickly publish content, and then get traction from that.”

Noodles and Nosh plans micro-brewery at new site: The Bristol vegetarian restaurant Noodles and Nosh, founded by Mark Wolff, has been awarded £100,000 to relocate from St Stephen’s Street to St Nicholas Street and redevelop two old buildings. Wolff said: “The money will go in part to help restore two derelict buildings. We will be putting in Mr Wolfs, six artisan studios, a micro-brewery plus two retail shops, and have a living garden at the back. The building will have solar power, a biomass boiler, rain water harvester, all the windows will be repaired and most of the walls will be restored to the brick, which has a combination of brick and stone. We expect when the project is finished we will create seven new full-time jobs, plus preserving 17 jobs. There will also be space for eight start-up business with affordable rent.”

Crafty Crow faces delayed landing: Nottingham’s Magpie Brewery is hoping to open its first pub in two weeks’ time, two months later than first expected. The brewery, which started in 2006, announced in October that it had taken on the premises formerly the BZR bar on Friar Lane, Nottingham and would be opening them as a craft ale bar before Christmas. However, despite a £70,000 spend on the bar, which had stood empty for two years, the opening has been delayed for “crucial” works to be completed. The bar told would-be fans via its Facebook page that it should know the exact opening date by the end of this week “when some crucial works are finished – we can’t open until they are done.” However, it said, the doors should open in “about two weeks, we hope.”

Newcastle Brown steals show at Superbowl with self-mocking advert: Newcastle Brown Ale is regarded as having “stolen the show” among the adverts shown during the Super Bowl game in the United States. The biggest sporting event in the US, the Super Bowl attracts more than 100 million viewers each year, and a 30-second advertising slot can cost around $4m. The beer brand launched the If We Made It campaign, looking to celebrate an advert that would have been made if the brand had the money to do so. The spoof video features actress Anna Kendrick, famed for her roles in films such as The Twilight Saga and Pitch Perfect, who rants about Newcastle Brown cancelling her Super Bowl commercial at the last minute.

Inventive Leisure re-launches website for use with smartphones and tablets: After a survey by the Office for National Statistics which found that 89% of 18 to 24-year-olds use their mobile device to access the internet, Inventive Leisure, the Revolution Vodka bar operator, conducted research of its own which found that 55% of visitors to the Revolution website were accessing the site via mobile phones. The company has now re-launched the Revolution site for use with smartphone and tablet devices, while also ensuring that it represents the evolution of the brand online, in keeping with the planned £10m investment in its Evolution programme. A new strapline has been introduced – “Cocktails and Kitchen” – and the site now includes filtered food menus and a full drinks lists which represent the physical menus in the bars. Carl Morris, head of marketing at Inventive, said: “Our objective with the launch of the new website is to position Revolution as a digital leader in the hospitality industry. Digital has always been important to the business, as we know our customers look for innovative, stunning, user-focused platforms to engage with the brand. We are delighted to see the continued evolution of the Revolution brand successfully represented online and are confident that our customers will benefit from the innovative functionality of the new website.”

Storm hits Cornish boutique hotel: A luxury boutique hotel on the south coast of Cornwall has been hit by the latest storm to hit the county. Waves smashed through windows at the Idle Rocks in St Mawes during yesterday morning’s high tide. Flood damage has been caused throughout the 20-room hotel, which was completely refurbished last year. The hotel was due to re-open tomorrow after a winter break, but that date has now been put back. Tim House, the hotel director, said: “Waves battered the hotel and broke through terrace windows, causing flood damage throughout. It will delay re-opening by a week or so, but with all hands on deck, literally, we will get there.” The hotel was bought by David Richards, chairman of the Aston Martin sports car company at the end of 2012. He and his wife Karen invested £2 million in refurbishing the hotel before its re-launch in July last year.

Subway on way to Ely: Subway has been given planning permission by East Cambridgeshire Council to change the signage at a former Lloyds Pharmacy premises in the High Street that will allow the chain move into the city for the first time. The plans involve turning half of the building into a Subway outlet and the other half into a Spar shop.

Loungers – costs ‘well controlled’ in year that sales rose 47%: The cafe bar concept Loungers, led by Alex Reilley and Jake Bishop and backed by Piper Private Equity, has reported costs were “well controlled” as turnover rose 47% to £22.15m in the year to April 28 2013, with like-for-like sales growth of 6.2%. The year saw nine venues added to grow the overall estate to 32, made up of 26 loungers and six Cosy Club sites. Site ebitda jumped from £3.14m to £4.41m. The company said in Companies House accounts filed this week: “The cost side of the business remains well controlled despite the on-going roll-out, as we continue to benefit from our low rents, and there will be further scope to improve margins as the business grows. Over the 12 months, £5.01m was spent on new sites, an increase of £2.09m or 71.6% from the previous year. The financial position of the business continued to improve during the year, with total assets less current liabilities increasing to £6.73m in the period from £3.4m in 2012. Santander continues to provide term loan facilities to finance less than 25% of the opening cost of new units and, at the period end, amounts due to Santander were £4.44m. The balance of new site costs is funded from internally generated cashflow. Shareholders’ funds increased to £2.12m from £1.08m, reflecting the underlying profitability of the business.” It continued: “The further expansion in Bristol, Birmingham and Bournemouth has underlined Loungers’ ability to operate multiple units in the suburbs and cities and our expansion into the North West has further demonstrated the brand’s ability to trade across the UK. The very successful Cosy Club openings in Salisbury, Cardiff and Exeter are in line with management’s strategy to operate Cosy Clubs in city centre and market town locations. The Cardiff site is now achieving the highest sales across the business.” Loungers reported it had invested £100,000 in its general manager and assistant manager training programme in the year. 2013 also saw the launch of its first Loungefest, an all-day festival in Somerset for 700 Loungers employees. The company reported that the first nine months of the current financial year had seen an acceleration in the roll-out programme, with ten new openings, and three more planned before the end of the current financial year, ending in April. Profit before interest was £1.2m in the year, up from £27,000 the year before. Profit before tax was £1.05m, against a loss of £140,000 the year before. The company workforce grew by 221 to 641 in the year. Loungers has reported 6% like-for-like sales growth in the first 26 weeks of the current financial year, with sales up 58.9% to £15.2m.

Restaurateurs offer strike-hit commuters big money off their bills: Restaurant chains in London have been offering commuters hit by the Tube strikes in the capital big discounts on their food bills. PizzaExpress has an offer of 40% off in selected Central London restaurants, applicable yesterday and today. The gastro-operator ETM Group was offering 50% off food yesterday and today to anyone who quoted the words “tube strike” when booking at any of its 11 outlets, which include the Jugged Hare on Chiswell Street and the Botanist in Sloane Square. Whyte & Brown, the chicken specialist off Carnaby Street in Central London, is also offering 50% off to customers who quote “Keep Calm” when they order both during this week’s strike and those planned to take place next week, February 12 and 13, with the offer reduced to 25% if the strikes are called off.

Quarter of pizza eaters eat it more than once a week: A report on the UK pizza market by insights firm Technomic has found that 24% of pizza eaters eat the dish more than once a week. The “super-heavy pizza consumers” are dominated by people aged under 44, with those aged 25 to 34 heavily represented, at 28% of all “super-consumers”, against just 17% of the population as a whole. Consumers aged 18 to 24 made up 20% of the “super-heavy” pizza eaters, against 17% in the whole survey sample. In all, 73% of consumers in the “super-heavy” group were aged 18 to 44, against just 49% of the overall sample of 1,000 consumers. The survey found 21% of pizza eaters fell in the “heavy consumer” bracket, eating it about once a week, 34% were “moderate” consumers, eating pizza two to three times a week, and 21% were “light” consumers, eating pizza just once a month or less. “Heavy” consumers tended to have higher household incomes, with a third reporting income of £40,000 to £60,000 a year, against 26% of all consumers polled. Moderate consumers were more likely to be older, with 42% aged 55 or more, as opposed to 34% of the whole sample, and poorer, with 32% reporting a total annual household income of £10,000 to £25,000, against 28% of the total sample. Light pizza consumers were much more likely to be older, with 70% aged 45 or more, against 51% of the total, and among the very poorest, with 14% having incomes under £10,000 a year, against 10% of the sample. The survey found little difference in the gender or ethnicity of different types of pizza eater compared to the overall sample. Technomic partnered the Pizza Pasta & Italian Food Association to publish Status & Outlook of the UK Foodservice Pizza Category and Its Customers. The report analyses the Top 150 limited-service and full-service chain restaurant menus to show pizza incidence and leading pizza varieties and ingredients. For more information on the report, contact Adrian Greaves at agreaves@technomic.com or 07888 917811.