Bill’s takes sector top spot in Sunday Times growth poll: Bill’s has been ranked the fastest growing eating and drinking business in the UK over the last three years by The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 league table. Bill’s notched up three-year sales growth of 108%, to hit £53.9 million of turnover and also ranked 19th overall. Bill’s has grown from five restaurants to 43 in the three-year period covered by the tracker. It currently has 51, with a further two opening before the year is up.
 
Wetherspoon faces protest over Headingley pub plan: Campaigners in Leeds have staged a protest a bid by JD Wetherspoon to turn a Grade II listed building in Headingley into a pub. Councillors and residents gathered at the Elinor Lupton Centre on Sunday to highlight a petition objecting to the pub chain’s recent purchase of the site on Headingley Lane. The building, previously a theatre and music centre, has been empty since 2010 after the old Leeds Girls’ High School closed. A Leeds councillor, Neil Walshaw, said he was disappointed the building’s owner, the Grammar School at Leeds, had chosen to sell to the company despite interest from two social enterprises. He said: “Yet another pub in Headingley, in a location close to so many homes, is not what Headingley needs. It is very disappointing that the building has been sold to a pub chain when there were two community groups wanting to purchase the building to use it as an arts, music and theatre centre – something our community needs. Pubs, on the other hand, we are not short of already.” A spokesman for Wetherspoon confirmed it had bought the site and said that if approved, the development would be in excess of £1.5m and would employ 50 members of staff. He said: “We have a number of Wetherspoon pubs in Leeds itself and in the Yorkshire region that are all successful. We are always looking for good sites in the region. We have one existing pub in Headingley which is very popular and, subject to the necessary planning and licensing permission, we would be able to create a very good pub here which we believe would be an asset to the area.”

Papa John's signs up in Peacehaven: Papa John's has opened its latest restaurant in South Coast Road, Peacehaven, East Sussex. The company's marketing manger, Kylee Charles, said: “We had a soft opening with no marketing, leaflets or anything, but we’ve had a really good response from the local community. The mayor presented us with a plaque and we had lots of pizzas ready for people to have a celebratory snack. We’ve created eight new jobs at the Peacehaven store and are also looking for drivers at the moment.” The Peacehaven store comes after the opening of a Papa John’s branch in Station Road, Portslade, West Sussex, the 17th for franchisee Ahmed El Dessouki, last month. The company now has more than 260 outlets in the UK, and claims to be the third largest pizza delivery operator in the UK "by a clear margin”.

Celebrity chef to spotlight waste issue: The celebrity chef and restaurant entrepreneur Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is to appear in a BBC programme about the UK's waste. The three-part documentary series will be about the millions of tonnes of waste generated in the UK and has the working title of Waste. Fearnley-Whittingstall will look into what happens to the rubbish which millions of householders sort into recycling containers and the fate of fresh food discarded by supermarkets. He will also encourage businesses to cut down on discarded products, as well as encouraging the public to ensure fewer things are thrown away.

Local authority buys leisure property freeholds to boost returns: East Hampshire Council has bought the Metro Inn Hotel and adjoining an Starbucks coffee shop, off the A3 near Liphook, Hants. It is the council’s third acquisition since it decided to shift its investments from low-interest cash to the high returns in property. Over the past two years the council has spent £3.7m on its property portfolio, including buying Barclays Bank, in The Square, Petersfield, and the Co-op store in Four Marks. The outlay is expected to recoup around £244,000 a year, far outstripping interest rate returns of around £37,000 a year, council officials said.

Vapiano wins European award: Vapiano, the German restaurant chain offering pizza and pasta dishes, has won the Best Food and Beverage Retail Concept title at the 19th Mapic Awards in Cannes. Mario Bauer, chief executive of Vapiano Franchising International, who accepted the award, said: “This Mapic Award 2014 is a particular honour for us. We are delighted that the top-ranking jury selected Vapiano from among the European entrants, who included landlords, property developers, real estate agents and other market participants. We are sure that this recognition is due to the new design that we have recently implemented as well as our strong growth in recent years, especially in the major European core markets.” The Mapic trade fair features exhibitions, conferences and networking events targeting all types of retail property, such as city and shopping centres, factory outlets, leisure areas and transit zones. It attracts more than 8,000 visitors and is celebrating its 20th year.
 
Loungers targets Frome opening: Loungers is targeting an opening in the Somerset market town of Frome (population: 26,203). The district council has received an application from Loungers for change of use for the former Lloyds Pharmacy, in the Westway Precinct, to a cafe bar. If given the go-ahead the unit will be given an extensive £500,000 makeover. It is likely to employ about 30 full and part-time staff. The company hopes to name the cafe Cordero, which is Spanish for young lamb, as a tribute to Frome’s history in the woollen trade, and have the site open by Easter. Raj Manek of Loungers said: “We’ve been looking for a suitable premises in Frome for about 12 months and feel we have found the perfect setting. Frome is really on the up and looks likely to explode, with great new shops and retail in the near future, and we want to be a part of that.”

Multi-million pound Liverpool restaurant set for international openings: Liverpool’s Amanzi restaurant, which has been created following a multi-million pound refurbishment of the former Newz Bar, is set for openings in Dubai, Los Angeles and Las Vegas over the coming months. The Water Street restaurant will officially open on 19 December serving a pan-Asian menu. Riad Erraji, operating partner, said: “We’re really pleased to be breathing life back into the former Newz Bar, which was once at the heart of Liverpool’s nightlife. Following the multi-million pound refurbishment, we’ve put this Water Street address firmly on the map, creating a sophisticated, modern venue which will appeal to all those in this city and beyond who want to dine in style.”

Second 22 The Square planned in Yorkshire: A second 22 The Square restaurant is planned for Cross Hills in North Yorkshire. Bella Napoli, on the village's Main Street for more than three decades, shut recently, but a planning application has been put in to open it as 22 The Square, with a new wine bar attached. The owners already have a restaurant of the same name in Northowram, Halifax. A spokesman said the new restaurant will feature Italian and Mediterranean cuisine. Initial preparations for refurbishment work on the building has already started and if planning permission is granted it is expected the restaurant could be open in late March or early April.

Pub company revives old Edinburgh brewery name with aid of family member: The Scottish pub company Caledonian Heritable is reviving an old Edinburgh brewing name, Ushers, by linking up with Inveralmond Brewery of Perth to open Ushers of Edinburgh, a brew-pub in the basement of Pear Tree House, an 18th century mansion in West Nicolson Street in Edinburgh's Old Town that was once home to the Usher family. The new venture is being assisted by Stuart Usher, who has helped to research the history of his brewing relatives. Their Park Brewery in St Leonard's Street, opened in 1860, was taken over by Vaux of Sunderland in 1959 and closed in 1981. From this week, a core range of five beers will be produced in the new pub. Paul Hastie, area manager at Caledonian Heritable, whose other outlets in Edinburgh include Bannerman’s, Ryan’s Bar and The Dome said: “Ushers is a key part of Edinburgh’s brewing heritage and so we’re very excited to be reviving the brand.” Fergus Clark, managing director of Inveralmond Brewery, said: “Eventually, we’d like to give visitors the chance to brew their own beers and try out different recipes.”
 
PizzaExpress plans Scarborough opening for summer 2015: PizzaExpress is planning to open a restaurant in Scarborough, Yorkshire in premises currently occupied by a clothes store. The new outlet, which will be 34 miles from the next nearest PizzaExpress, in Beverley, East Yorkshire, will have 76 covers on the ground floor and the same number again on the first floor. The chain, which will be moving in to take over the X-Chainstore store at 11-12 Sandside, has applied to Scarborough Council to serve alcohol and play recorded music from 11am until 12.30am from Monday to Sunday. A spokesman for PizzaExpress said that it intended to open in Scarborough in the summer of 2015, though no more specific time could be given at present.
 
Greene King offers Bury a boost by opening its staff car park for town use on Saturdays: Greene King has provided a boost for its home town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk by making its 400-space car park available on Saturdays in the run up to Christmas and the New Year. Alaric Pugh, cabinet member for economic growth on the local council, said: “For shoppers, it means that whatever side of the town you are driving in from, there is an opportunity to park and walk, and to avoid some of the traffic queues.” A Greene King spokesperson said: “We all know how busy it can get in our popular town centre over Christmas so hopefully by opening up our car park it will make a trip to the shops a little easier.”

Stevenage Hollywood Bowl re-opens after £500,000 spend with Costa Coffee and US-style restaurant: The Hollywood Bowl at Stevenage Leisure Park in Hertfordshire has reopened with a new booking system, which allows guests to invite Facebook friends when booking online. New scoring software which allows customers to share their strikes on social media has also been installed, while the seating around lanes and bookable booths have been redesigned. The venue also now has a Costa Coffee and an American-style restaurant, Harry’s Kitchen, with servers available to deliver directly to bowlers at their lanes.

Locals back bid by Hampshire's first micropub for outside drinking area: Locals living close to Hampshire's first micropub, the Butcher’s Hook in Bitterne Park, Southampton, have backed its plans for an outside drinking area by three to one. At least 11 have written to Southampton Council supporting the pub's application, while only four have written against it. The managers of the pub, which measures just 12 feet by 27 feet, say the extension would include a small outdoor seating area in front of the property in Bitterne Park Triangle. Co-owner Daniel Johnson told the Daily Echo: “The business is doing very well, we are full on Fridays and Saturdays when we have door staff. We are still very busy, it’s just that we’re not quite as crazy as it was when we first opened and it was unmanageable outside.” The city council’s licensing and gambling sub-committee is due to decide on the proposals at a meeting at the Civic Centre at 9am on Thursday.
 
McDonald's wins Rutherglen approval: McDonald's has been given planning permission for a 160-seater drive-through restaurant in Rutherglen, in the Greater Glasgow area of South Lanarkshire. The chain lodged a planning application for the site on Dalmarnock Road, beside the River Clyde and next to a Tesco Superstore, which has now been approved by a South Lanarkshire planning committee meeting. The restaurant is due to open by next summer and will create around 65 new jobs. Council leader Eddie McAvoy said that although McDonald’s had enquired about coming to the area before, this was the first time any plans have been solidified. He said: “It’ll make a big difference, especially down at that area where we could do with some investment to make the place more attractive. It will create a number of new jobs as well. It’s a good company with a good reputation and it will be well used. The more people it attracts the better it is for Rutherglen.”
 
Burger King franchisee Millcliffe opens in Banbury, lines up Rugby and West Bromwich: The Burger King franchisee Millcliffe has opened a new outlet for the fast food chain in the Castle Quay Shopping Centre, Banbury, Oxfordshire. The 88-seater restaurant has created about 25 new job opportunities. Millcliffe, which already runs Burger King outlets in towns and cities such as Carmarthen, Redditch, Llanelli, Bangor, Wisbech and Gloucester, has two more openings lined up, on the High Street in Rugby and in the Queens Square Shopping Centre in West Bromwich.
 
Pret supplier wins Ocado listing: The frozen drinks supplier Love Smoothies has signed a deal to sell its award-winning smoothies through Ocado. Starting in January 2015, the company’s best-selling drinks including favourites such as Pash ’n’ Shoot and Broccoli and the Beast will be available to consumers direct for less than £1. Love Smoothies supplies Pret A Manger, independent cafes, gyms, bars, restaurants and hotels. Founder Richard Canterbury said: "We are in our 10th year and throughout this time people have been asking us why they can’t enjoy our smoothies from the comfort of their own kitchen – well, now they can.”

Pub chain food supplier buys factory from Heinz: The Authentic Food Company, which makes a range of Indian, Chinese and British frozen meals and snacks sold to clients such as JD Wetherspoon, Greene King and Iceland, is to acquire a frozen ready meals factory in the Republic of Ireland from the food giant Heinz. The company, which was founded in 1985 and is family-owned and managed, said the acquisition was part of the planned expansion of its foodservice and retail businesses in the UK and continental Europe as a result of the "enhanced capability and capacity" from the site.
 
Two more restaurants planned for Ashford leisure site with nine outlets already: A developer in Ashford, Kent has applied for planning permission for two more restaurant units at the town's Eureka Leisure Park, which is already home to outlets for Frankie and Benny’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King, Chiquito, Nando’s, Beefeater, McDonald’s and Subway. The site also has a Premier Inn hotel and a Cineworld cinema. Full planning permission is being sought by Indigo Planning, based in London, on behalf of Ashford developers Leisure II Limited, to build two single-storey food outlets on the leisure park, in Rutherford Road. If approved, the work will be carried out in two phases, with the first restaurant and 24 parking spaces as phase one. Phase two will see the second restaurant and 29 parking spaces created close to Cineworld. No occupiers have been named for the new units, but a planning report states: “The applicant already has interest from restaurant operators.”

McDonald’s sales drop in all three major regions: McDonald's has announced that global like-for-like sales fell by a much higher than expected 2.2% in November, with comparable sales down by 4.6% in the United States, 2% in Europe and 4% elsewhere in the world. Analysts have predicted that 2014 will be the first year of negative global like-for-like sales since 2002. McDonald's chief executive, Don Thompson, said: "Today's consumers increasingly demand more choice, convenience and value in their dining-out experience. We are working to bring the McDonald's ‘Experience of the Future’ to life for our customers to better deliver against these evolving expectations. Each of our geographic segments is focused on regaining business momentum by prioritising initiatives to improve comparable sales performance in the near-term, while developing innovations to deliver sustained profitable growth through McDonald's Experience of the Future." McDonald's said that the like-for-like sales fall in the US of 4.6% occurred "amid strong competitive activity". It said that  "to restore momentum", McDonald's US "is diligently working to enhance its marketing, simplify the menu, and implement a more locally driven organisational structure to increase relevance with consumers". Like-for-like sales in Europe fell 2% in November as positive performance in the UK was more than offset by very weak results in Russia and negative results in France and Germany. The company said that while the operating environment "remains challenging across most of the segment", McDonald's Europe "remains focused on providing customers with locally relevant value and premium menu options, including differentiated beverage and breakfast offerings. Like-for-like sales in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa region in November fell  4%, reflecting the continuing fall-out from supplier scandals on performance in Japan and China, partly offset by positive performance in Australia. The company said "brand recovery campaigns" were continuing in the markets affected by the food-safety scare involving a key supplier in China. To drive customer traffic and improve performance, markets across the region were using "compelling menu options, value platforms and the segment's enhanced convenience initiatives,” the company said. McDonald’s shares fell at the beginning of the week after it also warned that weakening sales would “significantly pressure” margins in the quarter. Analysts on average had estimated a decline of 1.7% rather than 2.2%, according to Consensus Metrix. The company said the supplier scandal in China would reduce its profit for the quarter ending 31 December by 7 to 10 cents a share. McDonald’s US like-for-like sales have not increased since October 2013. Its shares have fallen 5.5% in the past six months.

White Brasserie Company to open fifth pub next Monday: White Brasserie Company, the pub offshoot of the Brasserie Blanc operator Brasserie Bar Co, will open its fifth pub next Monday (15 December) as part of plans to open 20 White Brasserie Company pubs in three years. The new site is the Sun Inn in Chobham, Surrey, an Enterprise Inns site, which becomes the company’s third venue with Enterprise. The large, open bar area to the front of the pub seats 50, while a newly built extension to the rear houses the 96-cover brasserie, with a design that draws on the simple detailing of stable buildings found in the local area. The brasserie and bar overlook a front garden with 34 covers, while a walled courtyard garden seats an additional 44. White Brasserie Company said its first two pub openings, the King’s Head in Teddington, Middlesex and the Queen’s Head in Weybridge, Surrey, have grown like-for-like sales for four consecutive years. Its third pub opening was the Hare in Harrow Weald, Middlesex and a fourth pub, the British Queen in Orpington, Kent, a Spirit leased pub, opened in September after a £1m co-investment. Chief executive Mark Derry said in September: “We think premium pubs are a big opportunity right now. Competition is much more fierce in the restaurant sector. It’s very hard for a competitor to take away your business when you have established a premium pub. We are serving restaurant-quality food in pubs, the same 100% fresh food as we serve in Brasserie Blanc. There are not many people doing it. Our pubs start with lower trading than the brasseries, but our two prototype pubs have seen four years of like-for-like sales growth and keep on growing. We think we will get better returns from pubs over the length of a lease. We are serving the same food at the same price point, and we haven’t had a single written complaint from a customer in two years.” Derry said a lot of time has been spent forging a new kind of lease at the Sun Inn, which has a turnover-related top-up element that allows Enterprise to benefit from food sales.

Wetherspoon to open second Republic of Ireland site next week: Pub operator JD Wetherspoon is to open its new pub in Dun Laoghaire next Tuesday (16 December) with the creation of 60 new jobs. The company has spent €2.8m developing the outlet, its second in the Republic of Ireland, on the site of an existing bar, in the Pavilion Centre, Marine Road. The Wetherspoon pub, which will retain the pub's original name, the Forty Foot, will be managed by Dublin-born Will Malone. The Forty Foot, part of the Pavilion Theatre complex overlooking Dun Laoghaire harbour, is named after the Forty Foot swimming spot less than a mile along the coast at Sandycove. The new-look pub, which is on two floors, will feature one bar on each. There is a pavement cafe-style terrace and a second-floor balcony and terrace, overlooking the bay.