UK beer sales achieve third consecutive quarter of growth: UK beer sales have risen, year-on-year, for the third quarter in a row, according to the latest UK Quarterly Beer Barometer from the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA). Annual beer sales for the year ending 30 September were 1.4% up on the previous year, the third quarter to have reported an increase in sales, after 29 consecutive quarters of decline, from quarter three in 2006. When comparing Q3 directly with last year, sales were down, but this was after a strong summer and third quarter last year, and will have been affected this year by off-trade retailers running down unused stocks of beer from the World Cup, the BBPA said. Quarter Three sales this year were still higher than in 2012. The BBPA's chief executive, Brigid Simmonds, said: “We are seeing a very encouraging recovery in UK beer sales, but there is certainly a way to go, after a long period of declining volumes. We’ve seen a boost in investment and jobs as a result of the last two Budgets with their one penny duty cuts, and major industry campaigns, such as ‘There’s a Beer for That’ show that the UK beer category is increasingly on the front foot. Another beer duty cut in March would really help the industry to continue this recovery.”

Fourth Hospitality unveils 'game-changing' new module to integrate epos and labour productivity: Fourth Hospitality, the maker of cost control and analytics software for the hospitality industry, has unveiled what it calls a "game changing" new product that integrates epos data with HR data, including labour usage, rotas and payroll, and stock purchasing and invoicing data. Christian Berthelsen, Fourth Hospitality’s chief technology officer, told a conference of delegates from 400 of the sector’s leading operators at the London IMAX cinema that generally the information was "kept in silos", but integrating it was something that companies "have to do – you have to get this insight. This is the competitive advantage. This is where your next 2% is coming from." While in the past it had been technically very difficult to bring all the necessary information together, "it's not any more," he said. "Joining the epos data together with the labour data together with the purchasing and invoicing data gives a unique insight into the business and a definite competitive advantage. Suddenly we can start looking at net sales, gross profit, labour costs, contribution margins, morning, afternoon and evening. It's no longer a weekly number, or just your daily numbers. You can start looking at it by the 15-minute slot." Insights included central management being able to tell what sites, what shifts and even what employees were better at, for example, upselling, Berthelsen said. The new module also allows managers to plan staffing levels to known demand, down to the nearest 15 minutes, incorporating such variables as weather forecasts, and even allowed staff to do their own shift swaps through the system, he said. 

Crowdcube launches 'high-impact' advertising campaign: The equity crowd-funding platform Crowdcube is launching a "high-impact" advertising campaign to boost its growing investor community, which reached the 100,000 mark last week. The campaign, created by the ad agency Chapter, will see Crowdcube take over Bank Tube station in London this week, along with 100 branded taxis throughout the capital. Crowdcube expects to add another 50,000 investors in 2015, maintaining its position as the biggest crowd-funding platform in the UK. Luke Lang, the co-founder of Crowdcube, said: "Crowd-funding has grown considerably in popularity over recent years, not just for businesses looking for alternative financing, but with investors too. We want to cement our position as the biggest and best equity crowd-funding platform, and this campaign will help showcase Crowdcube as an innovative and interesting option for investors looking for opportunities to invest in start-up, early and growth stage businesses."
 

Company News:

Tim Martin – “5% pay increase was the right thing to do”: JD Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin has described a 5% pay increase for his hourly staff implemented in October as the ‘right thing to do’. He said: “That 5% is above the industry average and well above the national average increase. It puts a little bit of a squeeze on margins but we think it is the right thing to do. We need to attract and retain staff to maintain a competitive edge so we’re trying to increase pay over the next few years. We’re not a Microsoft or a Google when it comes to our employees but it’s good business sense to improve pay and conditions. It makes commercial sense. I hope our investors will understand that.”

Douglas Jack upgrades Punch shares to ‘Add’ from ‘Hold’: Numis Securities leisure analyst Douglas Jack has upgraded Punch Taverns shares to ‘Add’ from ‘Hold’ with a 175p price target. He said: “Punch’s final results are due on Wednesday (12 November). The two main bear cases against the tenanted/leased pub companies, namely falling beer volumes and possible anti-beer tie legislation, are easing in our view. These factors and Punch’s valuation relative to Enterprise Inns are reflected in our upgrade to ‘Add’ from ‘Hold’. The shares, on 8.9x EV/Ebitda (2015E) are at a large discount to Enterprise Inns’ 9.9x EV/Ebitda (2015E), reflecting Punch’s equity overhang from the debt-to-equity swap. With Punch offering greater equity upside from debt reduction, we expect its valuation discount to Enterprise to narrow (one way or the other) over the medium-term.”

Property costs 'biggest challenge facing sector' says ALMR chairman Steve Richards: The biggest problem facing the casual dining sector is the price of property, Steve Richards, chairman of the Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers (ALMR), said this week. Richards, who is also chief executive of Tragus Group, owner of the Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia chains, told a conference of delegates from 400 of the sector’s leading operators at the London Imax cinema organised by the hospitality software firm Fourth Hospitality: "We've talked about food costs and people costs, but property costs are a really tough one for us all. What the ALMR, linking in with a lot of retailers, is campaigning to try to get a better, or fairer, deal in terms of the profit share with landlords." Richards said there were seven large property firms in the UK, and "it's very hard for any operator to go and bang on the door and start a campaign, because we just won't get any hearing." That was where the trade body can go and make a sensible contribution to landlords and the government about the current cost of property Richards said. 

Karen Forrester – employee pressure pushed TGI Friday's into being more green: Karen Forrester, chief executive of TGI Friday's, revealed this week that it was pressure from younger employees that pushed the company into reducing the amount of waste it sent to landfill to zero. Speaking at a conference organised by the hospitality software company Fourth at the London Imax, Forrester said: "We conduct a regular team engagement survey, and a couple of years ago the number one item in terms of what our teams wanted from us was all around the green agenda. They told us, 'You're not being responsible in terms of how you're disposing of waste and so on,' and they were quite strong in their views. We really tackled that, and everything they asked us for, we put right. At the time, in excess of 90% of our waste went to landfill. Our teams said, 'That's just not on, we're not having it.' Today nothing goes to landfill." Forester said the pressure had come from the company's "Generation Y" workers: "We thought their main concern would be, 'make it a good place to work', but number one was, 'look after this planet for me, and for future generations."

YO! Sushi to open at world’s best airport for food and beverage in early 2015: A YO! Sushi outlet will open in Copenhagen airport in early 2015. The Danish capital's airport won Airport Food & Beverage Offer of the Year at the Moodie Report-organised Food & Beverage Awards in June this year. The Copenhagen site, thought to be a franchise operated by SSP, is the chain's first opening in Denmark.
 
Scottish coffee chain Beanscene set for liquidation: The Scottish coffee chain Beanscene has filed for liquidation, with branches likely to cease trading next week. Solicitors for the company have lodged a petition at Paisley Sheriff Court asking that the firm, which is based in Clarkston, near Glasgow, be wound up. Nicola Ross, who is acting on behalf of Beanscene, said liquidation proceedings would begin next week unless challenged, which was "highly unlikely". Clients who are owed money by the coffee company, founded in 2000, have until November 12 to lodge claims with the court. The last accounts filed by Beanscene Scotland show it had accumulated losses of £171,000 as of December 31 2012. Ross said that the accountancy firm KPMG was the proposed liquidator. At its height in the mid-noughties Beanscene had 16 cafes across Scotland and a turnover of £4.2m It now has fewer than ten outlets. Beanscene went bust for the first time in July 2008, sparking a two-year probe by the Insolvency Service into its founder, Gordon Richardson, which eventually resulted in him being banned from running a company for six years. Investigators found that before the firm went bankrupt, Richardson had secretly transferred £189,000 from Beanscene accounts to pay off loans to another company, money that should have gone to creditors.

Allsop markets Faucet Inn site in Sevenoaks: The auction house Allsop is marketing the freehold of Faucet Inn’s Oak Tree site in Sevenoaks, Kent, which trades as a “chop house and tap room”, for offers in excess of £1.15m. The company pays a rent of £75,000 a year on a 25-year lease that started in 2001. Allsop reports that Faucet Inn, led by Steve Cox, had a turnover of £7.34m in 2013 and pre-tax profit of £608,000. 

Ed's Easy Diner leverages giant customer database to strike big promotion deals: Ed's Easy Diner, the 1950s-themed fast-food chain, is using the strength of its customer database, with more than half a million names, to strike big promotional deals with the likes of Universal Studios, its chief executive, Andrew Guy, revealed this week. Speaking at a conference organised by the hospitality software company Fourth Hospitality at the London Imax, Guy said the database had started small, but grown to 524,000 by the end of last month: "We email them usually twice a month. Only three times a year, when the kids go back to school at the end of the major holidays, do we send them an offer," Guy said. "The rest of the time it's competitions The latest one is to win tickets for the NFL game at Wembley. Last Christmas we were approached by Universal Studios in Florida, they were opening a new 1950s-themed hotel, and they asked us, would we run a competition for them, they would provide four flights, five nights in the hotel, $500 and airport transfer fees. That got 70,000 entries." Guy also revealed that one of Ed's KPIs looked at every week is sales per square foot, because "Ed's tries to drive a lot of business through a very small square footage. Our sweet spot size is about 2,200 to 2,500 sq ft. We need to turn tables. So the other KPI that we look at all the time is the ticket times and the time it takes food to come out of the kitchen. We're fortunate, it's a simple menu, we don't sell appetisers so there's no confusion getting the second course out, and we don't sell many desserts – you could say, 'Well, try harder,' but in fact we don't want to do that, and in any case milk-shakes are one of our biggest selling items and we put three scoops of ice-cream in a milk-shake. So we say, 'You have your dessert with your main course.' We look at a target time of 35 minutes getting people in and out. That helps, of course, at lunchtimes or in a travel location. In a busy shopping centre, with opening hours of 10am to 6pm, we would use every seat ten times on a Saturday." 

Mitchells & Butlers opens new Toby Carvery in acquired Blackpool site: Mitchells & Butlers has opened a new Toby Carvery at a site in Blackpool it acquired earlier this year from Spirit. After a six-figure investment, the former Clifton Arms in Preston New Road, Marton, has been transformed, including a new menu and seating for 200 people. A total of 40 jobs have been created. Plans were submitted to Blackpool Council in May seeking permission for a single storey extension to the property, with external alterations including a new entrance and nine additional parking spaces. Assistant manager Vicky Hall said: “A lot of people have told us how different the inside is compared to the previous pub, which I think was more drinking focused.” The new pub is the second Toby Carvery on the Fylde coast and comes after Salter’s Wharf in St Annes.

Former Atmosphere Bars site has price slashed by a third: A former Atmosphere Bars and Club site in Llandudno, North Wales has had its asking price slashed by a third. The Broadway Boulevard night club, on Mostyn Broadway, was initially on the market for £750,000. The asking price has now dropped to £500,000 in the hope of attracting more interest. The owner, Atmosphere Bars and Clubs, went into administration in May 2013 as "a consequence of cash flow problems”. The venue remained open while the administrator, Deloitte, sought to sell the parent company, but the Broadway Boulevard eventually closed its doors for good in June 2013. Malcolm Bullock, mayor of Llandudno, said: “This is a building that Llandudno has missed and one that really needs to be open. Hopefully dropping the asking price will attract more people towards it, as it was a popular venue with a big presence in the town.”
 
Sticks ’n’ Sushi using web cookies to work out where to open next restaurants: The Danish-based restaurant chain Sticks ’n’ Sushi, which now has three outlets in London and ten restaurants in Copenhagen, is seeing 12 to 14% of its revenue, equal to £4m to £5m a year, come via its web platform, chief executive Kim Rahbek Hansen revealed this week, and is using information gathered from "cookies" that tell it from where and how often customers are dialling in to the site to plan where it should be opening its next outlets. "We can see exactly where people live, where they are, what their household spend is and so forth. We work very closely together with a bureau that gives us these statistics." Hansen told a conference of delegates from 400 of the sector’s leading operators at the London Imax cinema organised by the hospitality software firm Fourth Hospitality. That information, he said, can then be used to inform the company over site selection. 
 
Ludlow freeholders add three luxury bedrooms thanks to grant: Ludlow pub freeholders Tim and Jane Vaughan have added three luxury cottages suites within redundant outbuildings to their pub The Queens after a £25,000 grant. The couple, who bought the freehold of the pub from Punch Taverns five years ago, applied successfully for a redundant buildings grant from the Local Enterprise Partnership. Tim Vaughan said: “The cottages all have hard wood windows installed and we’ve paid particular attention to the luxury bathrooms that have been installed. Details like this are important when you want to stand out in a competitive market. The process to apply for the grant was detailed and thorough but nothing more than you’d expect when carrying out a project of this scope. The difference it will make to our business can’t be over-estimated and in that respect the effort involved in applying has been well worth it.” Graham Wynn, chairman of the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “The £25,500 grant that they’ve received from the Marches LEP will allow them to build on this success and I’m sure that their luxury cottages will be well received by visitors to the area.”
  
Michelin-starred chef opens Glasgow restaurant: The Michelin-starred restaurateur Martin Wishart has opened a new restaurant in Glasgow, The Honours, a "contemporary brasserie" housed in the Malmaison Hotel, on West George Street. Wishart already runs an Edinburgh brasserie of the same name, an eponymous restaurant in Leith and its sister restaurant at Cameron House Hotel on the banks of Loch Lomond. Glasgow has not had any Michelin-starred restaurants since Gordon Ramsay's Amaryllis, at One Devonshire Gardens, closed down a decade ago.

PizzaExpress continues policy of seeking local inspiration with movie-themed site in Beckenham: PizzaExpress has continued its new refurbishment policy of taking inspiration from the locality with the re-opening of a site in Beckenham High Street in Kent that pays homage to the area’s links with the film industry. Film producers such as Betty and Sydney Box, who were active around the middle of the last century, lived in Beckenham and the restaurant is next door to a cinema with a history dating back many years. The restaurant artwork features 1960s movie posters for classics such as Barbarella, Vertigo and The Time Machine.

Individual Restaurants to add late-night food bar to London Piccolino: Individual Restaurants, the operator of 33 premium casual dining sites owned and led by Steve Walker, is to add the Cicchetti Bar to its Heddon Street Piccolino in Mayfair, London on 12 November. Cicchetti Bar is described as a "stylish new drinking and dining destination in London’s West End". It offers small sharing plates menu of ‘cicchetti’ – Venetian style tapas – and promises the "best late night Italian food in London". Cicchetti, on the lower ground floor of Piccolino on Heddon Street, will be open until 1am Monday to Saturday. 
 
Burger King reports biggest US sales gains in two years: Burger King has reported its biggest quarterly like-for-like sales increase in North America in two years. Sales in the United States and Canada rose 3.6% in the third quarter compared with the same period last year. Globally, like-for-like sales increased 2.4%. In contrast, rival McDonald's recorded a 3.3% decline in global like-for-like sales over the same time period. Burger King swung to a loss of $23.5m for the quarter, however, from a profit of $68.2m in the same period last year. The loss is due in part to Burger King's $11bn acquisition of the Canadian coffee-and-doughnut chain Tim Hortons. Total operating costs and expenses more than doubled to $278m for the quarter. Revenue rose 1.4% to $278.9m.

Black Sheep, Fuller’s and Shepherd Neame join waste scheme: The number of brewers formally signed up the SUSTAIN waste packaging compliance scheme, operated by the British Beer and Pubs Association, has more than doubled in the past week, with Black Sheep, Fuller Smith & Turner and Shepherd Neame having now joined. Joining the SUSTAIN scheme will reduce the cost for members of buying Packaging Recovery Note, as well as providing comprehensive support and industry-specific expertise. The three new members join fellow family brewers Charles Wells and Hook Norton in the scheme, and other companies are expected to sign up shortly. The new scheme was introduced to BBPA members at a well-attended workshop in Birmingham on 16 September. Major cost savings can be achieved, with an estimated cost reduction of around 17% for the average BBPA member, or around £150,000 per year, per company.
 
Santander partners with Cardlytics to offer cashback rewards at retail brands including restaurants: Santander has partnered with Cardlytics, the global leader in card-linked marketing, to offer cashback rewards to its mobile and online banking customers. Since launching last year, Cardlytics has grown at pace and has already driven millions of pounds of retail spend. The number of retailers in the programme has increased from 20 last year to more than 100 brands today. The latest retailers to join include Gourmet Burger and Patisserie Valerie. Jill Dougan, managing director of Cardlytics, said: “With Santander coming on board, card-linked marketing is set to revolutionise digital marketing in the UK. It’s the only channel based on ‘whole wallet’ spend, allowing advertisers to build up a rich profile of where, when and on what customers are spending. It provides banks with a new route to engage and reward loyal customers and enables consumers to get money off the brands they love with a single click.” Katie McDermott, marketing director at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, said: “As a restaurant group using the scheme, we’re delighted we will be able to offer our Santander customers some great cashback rewards when they dine at GBK. This new Cardlytics partner will allow us to target specific promotions to more consumers, based on their spending not only with us, but also other casual dining restaurants.”
 
Agatha Christie freehold hotel in Norfolk goes on the market for £1.65m: The freehold of a north Norfolk hotel that once hosted novelist Agatha Christie is up for sale for £1.65m through the property agent Colliers. The Beechwood Hotel at North Walsham was frequently visited by Christie in the 1930s, when it was the private home of her local GP friends. The Georgian property on Cromer Road later became a hotel and was bought 21 years ago by Don Birch and Lindsay Spalding. They increased the number of bedrooms from 11 to 17, with a four-bed annexe, doubled the size of the restaurant, and the turnover had gone up 10-fold since 1993. The hotel, which employs 30 staff, has also won a string of awards, including a travellers’ choice award with the travel revenue website TripAdvisor. The restaurant has been awarded two rosettes by the AA.

Football star investor in La Sala says food superior to Gary Neville’s Cafe Football: The former Tottenham Hotspur footballer David Bentley has claimed that food at La Sala, the James Horler-headed restaurant brand that has opened its first site in Woodford Green, Essex, is far superior to the food served at Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs’s Café Football in Westfield Stratford. He told the London Evening Standard: “What would the score be? Definitely 3-0 to La Sala – a hat-trick. That’s one goal for each course. The mixed sushi to start, then the sharing rack of ribs for main would put us 2-0 up. The final insult would be the chocolate brownie with chocolate sauce – we’d wipe the floor.” Explaining his decision to invest in La Sala, Bentley said: “I became very at home at La Sala in Spain. I found out they were planning to open in the UK, and I was looking for a new venture. It’s a lifestyle choice. I could sit in a bar until 3am but I would far rather enjoy a laid-back evening with friends over a meal if I’m honest.”

Enterprise Inns agrees deal to turn pub’s disused barn into Pilgrim Fathers heritage centre: Enterprise Inns has agreed a deal with the Pilgrim Fathers UK Origins Association to turn a disused barn at the back of the Pilgrim Fathers pub in Scrooby, Nottinghamshire into a heritage centre. Scrooby is recognised by Mayflower descendents in the United States as the spiritual home of the Pilgrim Fathers. Anthony Darbyshire, chairman of the association, said: “It is very important that we create a central hub for the Pilgrim Fathers heritage in the UK and Scrooby is the right place. We hope to open the centre at Easter in 2017, which is well before the [400th] anniversary [of the Mayflower's voyage in 1620]. I am sure that we can build much stronger links with the Mayflower descendents in the US and promote the importance of this heritage locally.” The design features an entrance between the pub and the barn with a lift and stairs to the upper floor and a connection passage to the pub. The ground floor will feature static and interactive displays of sites in the local area and Pilgrim Fathers sites in the US.

Bar Sport opens franchised site in Braintree: The sports bar chain Bar Sport has expanded its franchise operation with a new site in Braintree, Essex. The business, founded by the entrepreneur and former boxer Scott Murray in 1998, has outlets in Newbury, Maidenhead and Bromley, with venues at Southampton and Derby and a bar in Scotland in the pipeline. Murray continues to run the Cannock outlet himself. The latest addition is a £300,000 investment and has created around 25 new jobs. Bar Sport Braintree is being run by franchisee Steve Winder.
 
Pizza Hut gets new global division head: The current head of Pizza Hut in the United States, David Gibbs, is to become chief executive of the brand's global division on 1 January when the current CEO, Scott Bergren, retires. Gibbs will oversee brand strategy for more than 13,000 restaurants outside China and India, which are separate reporting divisions. The global division, which includes the UK, and is about 94 % franchised, has annual sales of more than $10bn. Gibbs is currently president of Pizza Hut US and was previously president and chief financial officer for Yum! Brands International. He joined the company in 1989.

Douglas Jack – it’s a familiar story on sales and margins at Wetherspoon: Numis Securities' leisure analyst Douglas Jack has described yesterday’s first quarter results at JD Wetherspoon as a "familiar story in relation sales and margins". He said: “LFL sales rose 6.3% in Q1 (13 weeks) having been up 6.3% after first seven weeks. However, margins fell 60bps. We are raising our LFL sales forecast to 4%, from 3.5%, but are cutting our margin forecast to 7.6% from 7.9% to reflect higher costs. The net result is a 4% reduction in PBT and earnings forecasts. We still forecast a 12% earnings CAGR over the next three years. JDW’s beer price discount to the rest of the sector has risen to 16.9% from 14.5% over the last three years. If that were reversed (adding 6.6p to the price of a pint), without any impact on volumes, we estimate PBT would receive a £10m (11%) boost, however, 'the key focus for management is how we grow sales'. Two new pubs opened in Q1. JDW has 15 new pubs in development and expects to meet its target of 30 to 40 new openings over the full year, 70% of which should be freehold. The company, which had £557m of net debt in July, has increased its bank facilities to £740m from £690m, extending the maturity from March 2018 to November 2019. Our 950p target assumes the current 16x P/E (8.6x EV/ebitda) rating holds. We are forecasting 41% of earnings growth over the next three years: 4% due to LFL profits; 16% due to expansion; 14% due to lower swap costs; 7% due share buy backs/lower tax rate. We believe the strongest catalysts for upgrades and a re-rating would be higher pricing.” Peel Hunt's leisure analyst Nick Batram said: “While the top line continued to deliver, it is once again at the cost of margins. Full-year margin guidance has been lowered once again and the hoped-for stability continues to prove elusive. The commitment to the consumer proposition is to be admired but, with no sign of margin stability and subsequently falling returns, the shares will find it difficult to outperform.”
 
Deputy Prime Minister kicks off ‘Great School Lunch’ at Brasserie Blanc: The chef-entrepreneur Raymond Blanc has joined forces with the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, and school chefs at Brasserie Blanc in Oxford to celebrate National School Meals Week (3-7 November). Hundreds of schools will be taking part in the celebrations throughout the week alongside a host of renowned chefs to promote healthy eating in Britain’s primary and secondary schools. Children from local schools were invited for breakfast at Brasserie Blanc, before taking part in a hands-on pumpkin pie cookery lesson led by Blanc. Clegg, Blanc and a school chef then participated in a "pancake-off", with each of them making and flipping a pancake. Brasserie Blanc has recently launched a new children's menu based on Henri Le Worm, a popular app created by Blanc’s son Olivier. Dishes such mini-moules and charcuterie platters are available at all 20 restaurants alongside a puzzle sheet filled with healthy recipes and food tips designed to teach children where their food comes from.
 
Marston's signs for pub-restaurant at Stafford business park: Marston’s is to build a pub and 180-seat restaurant on the Weston Road access to Beacon Business Park in Stafford. Planning permission for the pub and restaurant has been granted and Marston’s is the first new tenant confirmed on the 50-acre extension to Beacon Business Park, which is on the main road from Stafford to Uttoxeter. A deal was signed between Marston’s and ISE Estates, the company behind Beacon Business Park, and construction is expected to start at the end of this month. There will be some 6,000 residents within a couple of miles of the new pub, a steady flow of visitor traffic to the County Showground, and 1,200 military personnel due to be housed on a Ministry of Defence "super garrison" to be built in Stafford. 

Ice-cream parlour wins free unit in Nottingham shopping centre: An ice-cream parlour in Bakewell, Derbyshire has won £5,000 and a rent-free unit in the Broadmarsh shopping centre in Nottingham for 12 to 18 months. Ice Cream and Dreams was one of two winners in Nottingham Council's Inspiring Retail competition. Ice Cream and Dreams is already trading well in Bakewell, and owners Gareth Warne and Joel Bond say they believe they can replicate their success in Nottingham. Their 1950s-style ice cream parlour will sell Mövenpick ice cream, brownies, muffins, doughnuts and coffee. Warne said: "I think we can bring people into the Broadmarsh Centre and bring something new to Nottingham." Bond added: "We see this as a great business opportunity." The other winner in the competition, Dukki Design, sells gifts and merchandise associated with the regional dialect and cultural heritage of Nottinghamshire. The businesses will occupy two units in the upper mall of the shopping centre, which will be renamed Pop-Up Broadmarsh, and will be occupied mostly by independent retailers. Intu, the company which owns and operates the Broadmarsh Centre, is investing around £60,000 in the scheme by providing the two free units. The Inspiring Retail initiative is funded through the High Street Innovation Fund, given to several UK towns and cities after retail guru Mary Portas's review of town centres. Eight finalists received mentoring from the business support organisation NBV before being put through their paces by a panel of retail "dragons" when they had to pitch their business ideas.

Telford approves £200m restaurant quarter: Planning officers in Telford, Shropshire have approved the first phase of a £200m transformation of the town's shopping centre that will see five or six restaurants or cafes, totalling 26,500 sq ft, built on the site of the eyesore former Focus store. The Southern Quarter development follows the £250m Southwater project in Telford. Tim Binnington, chairman of Sovereign Land, the company overseeing the work, said: “The Southern Quarter will meet demand for more restaurant and café space, which has already been demonstrated by the huge success of Southwater. We are in discussion with a number of potential occupiers for the units. Now that we have planning consent, we can start to formalise these negotiations and we hope to be able to confirm names soon. We’re delighted to have been granted permission for this exciting development, as it marks the first part of our plans to revitalise the whole of Telford Shopping Centre.” He said the cafes and restaurants would be housed in a contemporary new building, designed by Benoy, the firm of architects that designed Westfield London, featuring an "elegant curved facade” and a striking gateway tower.

Welsh restaurant entrepreneurs set to acquire second site: Two entrepreneurs who set up a restaurant called Dylan's in Menai Bridge, North Wales two years ago are hoping to open their second venue by Easter next year. David Evans and Robin Hodgson are hoping to take over the Morannedd building on Criccieth seafront, Cardigan Bay by Easter next year,  subject to planning permission. The owner of the Morannedd building, Elizabeth George and her husband Dafydd have been running a seasonal cafe business from the premises for the past eight years. She said: “When approached by Dylan’s with their plans for Criccieth we immediately thought they were ideally suited for the Morannedd site and we very much hope that they will be able to proceed with these plans, which we believe will be of great benefit to Criccieth, in the near future.” Evans said: “Based on our success in Menai Bridge, we have been looking to expand the business with another waterside restaurant in North Wales specialising in locally sourced, high quality seafood and other produce. Morannedd is the perfect location for us, and we are delighted that we will soon be in a position to take over the lease. We understand how important and special this iconic building is to the community in Criccieth, and our plans fully respect its unique architecture and location.” The Menai Bridge restaurant, which specialises in local seafood, has been a big hit, winning Michelin Guide recognition, and employs around 40 people in the high season.