Goodbody – Greene King performance turnaround will ‘take time and require deeper customer experience improvements’: Goodbody leisure analyst Brian Devitt has said the turnaround in performance at Greene King will “take time and require deeper customer experience improvements”. Issuing a ‘Sell’ note on the shares following the company’s third-quarter results, Devitt said: “Pub Company like-for-like sales were -1.4% over the period. The statement notes that while drink and room like-for-like sales were ahead of last year, food like-for-like sales remained behind last year. Across the two-week Christmas trading period, like-for-like sales were +1.6%. Excluding the impact of adverse weather, like-for-like sales would have been +3.4%. However, outside this two-week period sales were slower, which reflects the tough underlying trading environment. The statement also notes management expects the additional investment made to enhance the customer experience (£10m allocated from the end of the first half), will help to improve competitiveness and relative trading performance. In Pub Partners, net profit for the 36 weeks was +0.2%, which compares with +1.5% in the first half and implies a negative third-quarter trend. Brewing & Brands’ own-brewed volume was -0.9% for the period, compared with +0.3% in the first half. The targeted cost savings of £40m to £45m this year remains on track and the brand optimisation programme is delivering returns of 25%. The group opened six new sites and disposed of 40 in the year to date. Overall, this appears to be a reasonably soft update from Greene King and reflects weakness across the business. KPI trends in both Pub Partners and Brewing & Brands have gone from positive in the first half to negative in the third quarter. The Pub Company’s performance continues to exhibit significant challenges. Some may point to a retention of the like-for-like run rate from the first half as an ok result given the weather impact in December. However, it is important to remember the £10m VSQ investment should have benefited the trend, while the statement suggests this has not yet occurred. This would reinforce our belief the turnaround in performance will take time and require deeper customer experience improvements. At first glance, we envisage reducing our FY18 Ebit forecasts by 1% to 2% and retain our cautious stance.”

Propel and Thinking Drinkers launch fourth Craft Beer Retail Study Tour: Propel is staging its fourth Craft Beer Retail Study Tour on Thursday, 22 March in London, this time exploring the burgeoning beer scene in Bermondsey and Brixton. The tour, led by Thinking Drinkers, award-winning beer writers Ben McFarland and Tom Sandham, will visit eight venues during the day-long tour, including leading craft beer retailers, a cider specialist and a street food market that features its own brewery. McFarland and Sandham will provide the latest craft beer facts and figures, market segmentation analysis, and spot up-and-coming trends, while CGA commercial director Graeme Loudon will give further insights. Site visits will include question-and-answer sessions with some of London’s leading retailers looking at award-winning sites, beer-centric retail, beer sourcing, direct sourcing, menus, brewing on-site, and a host of other issues. The day includes travel between venues by coach where appropriate. Tickets are £345 plus VAT for Propel Premium members and £395 plus VAT for non-Propel Premium members. To book, email anne.steele@propelinfo.com

Propel Multi Club Conference open for bookings, Chopstix to present: The first Propel Multi Club Conference of 2018 is open for bookings. The full-day event takes place on Wednesday, 7 March at the Grange Hotel in St Paul’s, London. Max Hilton Jenvey, chief operating officer of Chopstix, which has 35 outlets, will set out how the brand has evolved since its unlikely birth at a fish and chip shop in Camden, focusing on its rapid progress in the past two years with a simplification of its cooking process, international expansion and franchising. He will also talk about plans for new concepts, a breakfast offer in transport hubs, further product development, and penetrating European markets. Multi-site operators of pubs, restaurants and foodservice outlets can book up to two free places by emailing Anne Steele at anne.steele@propelinfo.com

Tim Martin – campaign to cut VAT in hospitality sector is being ‘taken seriously at the highest level’: The campaign to cut VAT in the hospitality sector is being “taken seriously at the highest level”, according to Tim Martin. The JD Wetherspoon chairman and other leading figures in the campaign – Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers chief executive Kate Nicholls, British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) chief executive Brigid Simmonds and campaign spokesman Chris Guyver – met with the minister of state at the Brexit department, Steve Baker, and other senior Conservative MPs who support the pub and beer industries. Following the meeting at the House of Commons, Martin said: “This was an excellent meeting and shows the campaign to reduce VAT in the hospitality industry is being taken seriously at the highest level. I told the meeting the industry is responding positively to the opportunities flowing from Brexit. In particular, the opportunity to reduce VAT in pubs and restaurants is now more achievable as the UK leaves the EU unencumbered by European Commission rules that currently prevent this.” Nicholls added: “MPs warmed to the idea that leaving the EU will make eating and drinking in pubs and restaurants much cheaper.” Simmonds vowed the BBPA would “continue to lobby parliament to ensure the pub trade benefits from Brexit”. Guyver said: “At the heart of Westminster there is now recognition that one of the salient benefits of the UK leaving the EU is our ability to organise our tax affairs in a way that suits British businesses.”

Hospitality employers see growth in ‘gagging clauses’: Employers in the hospitality sector are increasingly turning to “gagging clauses” to ensure staff protect the secrets of the rich and famous. Legal experts said exclusive hotels, spas, bars and restaurants were increasingly adding additional clauses or “side agreements” for staff members who go above and beyond those found in any standard employment contract. Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) or confidentiality (“gagging”) clauses are often found in executive-level employment contracts and commercial contracts to protect legitimate business interests. They are now increasingly being used as standard business practice, primarily to protect the privacy of customers and clients to ensure they continue to use the business in question. Andrea London, head of employment at law firm Fletcher Day, said: “It is almost standard practice now for employer businesses such as luxury hotels, transport or spas to insist on additional levels of protection above and beyond the ‘usual’ confidentiality clause found in a standard employment contract to assure their wealthy clients of a better chance of privacy. As a result, we are seeing more NDAs and confidentiality agreements being used, not least to highlight the extent and importance of such obligations, more and more often. There has apparently been a significant increase in demand for NDAs and predictions of yet further growth in their use.” NDAs are in the spotlight following an investigation by the Financial Times that revealed allegations of sexual harassment by hostesses at an annual charity black-tie dinner at the Dorchester Hotel that is popular with the rich and famous. London added: “NDAs would not necessarily prevent a harassment claim being made and we would expect the courts to take a dim view of employers attempting to use these to cover up serious allegations such as these.”

Ale festival organisers to launch national forum promoting ‘beer cities’ in bid to boost tourism: Organisers behind the Norwich City of Ale festival are set to launch a national forum that will promote the creation of “beer cities” in a bid to attract beer-lovers from around the world. Last year, the Norwich festival twinned with Sheffield Beer Week to hold joint events at their respective festivals for the first time. Now organisers of Norwich City of Ale have been awarded a Brewers’ Education & Research Fund grant to hold the first British Beer Cities’ National Forum, which will take place in the city on 8 and 9 October. The forum will involve 14 cities and towns that followed Norwich by setting up their own beer weeks. It will feature writers, tourism chiefs, pub and beer company directors, and representatives from the Campaign for Real Ale. Norwich City of Ale co-founder Dawn Leeder said: “We can share experiences and learn from each other. If we work together to promote Britain as a ‘beer nation’ and our cities as ‘beer cities’, the impact could be enormous. There’s potential to stimulate a significant amount of tourism. The forum’s conclusion will surely be to promote Britain internationally, through its beer cities, to beer-lovers around the world.”

Teams sought for 2018 Drinks Trade Regatta: Teams are being sought for the brewing industry’s annual sailing event, the Drinks Trade Regatta. The 28th regatta will take place from Friday, 11 May to Sunday, 13 May on the Solent. Teams are asked to donate £1,000 to charity with the top three contributors able to donate a percentage (first place 50%, second 30% and third 20%) to a charity of their choice. Last year’s event saw 19 teams participate, with more than £18,000 raised for charity. Faucet Inns narrowly beat Mast-Jaegermeister UK followed by Conviviality in third. The teams will depart from Port Solent, Portsmouth, on a fleet of Sunsail First 40s to Cowes on the Isle of Wight to compete in seven races over two days. Teams will also enjoy a barbecue at Cowes’ Royal Corinthian Yacht Club and a gala dinner at the Royal Yacht Squadron. The cost is £3,250 per yacht, which includes VAT and the £1,000 charity donation. Crews can be novices as Sunsail, which facilitates the event, can provide skippers for an additional cost. For more information, call Sunsail account manager Terry Hunt on 02392 222 221.

Prezzo holds talks with lenders as loans drop in value: Prezzo is in talks with its lenders after the price of its leveraged loans dropped in Europe’s secondary loan market as the UK casual dining sector comes under pressure. Private equity firm TPG acquired Prezzo in 2014, backed by a £155m leveraged loan financing, comprising a £130m term loan and a £25m pound revolving credit facility led by Barclays and Jefferies. Prezzo’s term loan was quoted at about 80% of face value on Thursday (25 January), reports Reuters. The loans have been in gradual decline since last year, closing the first quarter of 2017 at 98.4% of face value, before dropping to 88% at the end of the second quarter and 86% at the end of the third quarter. Given its performance, some banks have moved Prezzo’s loan from the front office to the work-out groups, sources said. Talks took place with lenders this week to discuss some of the issues. Some lenders speculated the company would be seeking a waiver on its financial covenants. The loans attracted the attention of hedge funds last year, which began to buy into the stressed credit but trading has reportedly come to a near halt until there is more clarity on the outcome of the talks. While one or two lenders sold out of their positions at the end of last year, a number of original lenders are holding on to the paper hoping the situation will improve, the sources said. 

SSP Group chief executive sees remuneration jump to almost £6.5m: Kate Swann, chief executive of UK transport hub foodservice specialist SSP Group, has seen her remuneration rise to nearly £6.5m for the year ending 30 September 2017, the company’s annual report has revealed. Swann received a total of £6,478,000, compared with £2,608,000 the year before. This included an annual bonus of £1,561,000 – 200% of salary – that was based on the company’s underlying group operating profit, which exceeded budget by 7.0%. The remainder of her remuneration consisted of £746,000 salary and fees, £66,000 in benefits, £275,000 pension, £3,829,000 in long-term incentives and £1,000 of “other” pay. Meanwhile, chief financial officer Jonathan Davies saw his total remuneration increase to £2,209,000, compared with £921,000 the previous year. This consisted of £413,000 salary and fees, £15,000 in benefits, £88,000 pension, £416,000 annual bonus, £1,276,000 in long-term incentives and £1,000 in “other” pay. Both Swann and Davies received a 2% salary increase from 1 June 2017, in line with the average salary increases awarded to UK employees who are paid on a monthly basis. This resulted in Swann’s salary increasing to £795,906 and Davies’ to £424,483.

Authentic Alehouses extends £5m crowdfunding campaign until March: Leeds-based Authentic Alehouses, led by Burning Night Group boss Allan Harper, has extended its £5m fund-raise on crowdfunding platform Crowdstacker. The company launched its funding bid in July to revive the fortunes of underperforming pubs by attracting a new generation of customers with a menu of “quality artisan food and drink, updated decor and a variety of entertainment”. It opened its first venue in November by relaunching The Albert Hotel in Hull following a £1m refurbishment. Authentic Alehouses is offering investors a 6.5% per annum interest rate through a peer-to-peer loan. Backers are also given the potential to earn income tax-free by investing via Crowdstacker’s Innovative Finance ISA. Authentic Alehouses’ campaign has so far raised £4,697,850. The next closing date is Monday, 5 March. Authentic Alehouses plans to use the capital to refurbish sites in prime locations, streamline and modernise its operation to cut waste, and introduce higher-quality food, a broader range of drinks, and more family-orientated entertainment.

Derbyshire-based multiple operator BKJ Leisure acquires first leased site as it takes on Star Pubs & Bars venue: Derbyshire-based multi-site operator BKJ Leisure has acquired its first leased pub following a new partnership with Star Pubs & Bars. BKJ Leisure, run by Barry and Karen Johnson and Luke Richards, has taken on The Hurt Arms in the village of Ambergate in Derbyshire. It is undertaking a joint £1m refurbishment with Star Pubs & Bars to turn it into a “top-quality country inn and wedding venue”. The Hurt Arms is BKJ Leisure’s first leased operation, while its other sites include The White Hart in Moorwood Moor – a country hotel and wedding venue – and The Horse & Jockey country inn and hotel in Wessington. The funds are being spent on a complete overhaul of the 19th century Hurt Arms. The interior is being reconfigured to include an expanded restaurant area, which will double the seating capacity to 120; a new zinc-covered central bar with cosy alcove and booth seating; and an 80-seater function room. Six boutique bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms are also being created. The kitchen is being upgraded to enable the pub to offer “top-quality gastro food” and cater for large numbers. There will be a wide selection of drinks including premium lager, craft ale, an extensive gin menu and cocktails made to order. Richards said: “It’s been a new experience working with a partner as we normally do everything ourselves. Hopefully this will be the first of a number of projects as we want to continue to expand with more properties throughout Derbyshire.”

Oakman to open fourth Beech House, in Amersham next month: Oakman Inns and Restaurants will open its fourth Beech House, in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, next month. The company has invested £1.7m to develop the pub and restaurant in Hill Avenue, creating 60 jobs. The restaurant, which will feature a Mediterranean-inspired menu including pizza and grilled fish as well as cocktails, will cater for 140 guests. Opening in late February, the venue will offer a “pavement cafe feel”, with alfresco seating. The four copper tanks by the bar will hold more than 1,000 pints of tank beer from London’s Meantime Brewery. A mezzanine floor above the main dining area will provide a private room for meetings and parties. General manager James Stanton will join the venue from The Beech House in Beaconsfield, which was Oakmans’ first venue for the concept. He told the MK Citizen: “I am really looking forward to introducing the local community to our new pub. I think we have managed to create a perfect blend of traditional pub comfort with a rich, contemporary feel.” Earlier this month, Oakman Inns and Restaurants reported like-for-like growth of 5.9% during the four-week Christmas trading period ending on 31 December 2017. The company operates 20 sites including its three other Beech House venues – in Beaconsfield, Solihull and St Albans.

Jones Bar Group to add crazy golf offer to Roxy Ball Room site in Manchester: Jones Bar Group is adding crazy golf to the offer at its Roxy Ball Room site in Manchester. The £100,000 development will be created in an unused upper floor of the Deansgate venue and will feature two nine-hole courses and its own bar and cocktail menu in keeping with the theme. Construction is already under way on the courses which, the company said, would have a traditional grass mini-golf feel with loops, ramps and some “quirky Roxy twists”. Jones Bar Group already operates mini-golf courses at the original Roxy Ball Room in Leeds, where it also has a boutique bowling alley, Roxy Lanes. Managing director Matt Jones told the Manchester Evening News: “Manchester is being really kind to us and there is a clear desire for social-based activities within the city centre. We’ve had some really great feedback on Roxy Ball Room and want to continue to develop our offering as an adult social gaming hub for our customers.”

YO! Sushi to open venue at London Bridge station redevelopment on Monday: YO! Sushi will become one of the first restaurant brands to open at the redeveloped part of London Bridge station when it launches a site on Monday (29 January). The venue at 49 St Thomas Street will open daily from 11am to 10pm and offer a 50% discount deal for the first three days, Hot Dinners reports. In November, the company acquired North America’s second-largest sushi brand Bento Sushi for £59m and appointed Richard Hodgson as chief executive to lead the combined group. Hodgson was formerly chief executive of PizzaExpress. Last month, YO! Sushi saw its Heathrow T2 site become the company’s first restaurant to take more than £100,000 in a week. The site broke two site records – most sales in a day by more than £2,000 and beating the busiest week by more than £16,000. YO! Sushi operates almost 100 sites worldwide, serving seven million customers a year.

Tapas Revolution secures Chester site: Tapas Revolution, led by celebrity chef Omar Allibhoy and managing director Mac Plumpton, has secured a site in Chester. The company will open a restaurant in the first phase of the Chester Northgate development in the city centre. It has taken a 3,000 square foot unit next to the entrance of the new food hall and market. The restaurant will also face on to the development’s new public square. Brian Clarke, Cheshire West & Chester Council’s cabinet member for economic development and infrastructure, said: “The Tapas Revolution mission is to put tapas on the map in the UK and we’re delighted a culinary entrepreneur of the quality of Omar Allibhoy has chosen Chester to expand his business. This latest letting to Tapas Revolution follows the signing of Cosy Club for a 5,000 square foot restaurant. There are agreements to lease two of the other restaurant units in phase one of the development currently in solicitors’ hands. We are also in discussions with catering operators interested in taking the remaining units.” Tapas Revolution has two sites in London as well as restaurants in Bath, Bluewater, Birmingham, Newcastle and Sheffield.

Cereal Killer Cafe closes Bullring site: London-based Cereal Killer Cafe has closed its site in Birmingham’s Bullring. The cult cafe launched in the city in November 2016 following the success of the brand in Camden and Shoreditch. Cereal Killer Cafe offers bowls of US cereal brands such as Chocolate Lucky Charms alongside Pop-Tarts, cereal cocktails, arcade games and walls festooned in 1990s memorabilia. A Cereal Killer Cafe spokesman told the Birmingham Mail: “Unfortunately we only had a short lease on that space so with regret we had to say cheerio.” In August, a musical about the Cereal Killer Cafe in Shoreditch was one of two new productions to be developed by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Other Palace theatre after the venue was targeted during anti-gentrification riots. The company was launched in Shoreditch in 2014 by Belfast-born Gary Keery and twin brother Alan. In late 2016, a chance Snapchat shot taken by a sheikh led to international expansion, with the brand making its international debut in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Dubai. 

MeatLiquor partners with Deliveroo to launch ‘grown-up version’ of Happy Meal: MeatLiquor has partnered with Deliveroo to launch the Ecstatic Meal – a “grown-up version” of McDonald’s Happy Meal – in a bid to “fight back against the winter blues”. Each Ecstatic Meal contains a Dead Hippie burger, hash browns, a drink and a toy for £2.69. The Dead Hippie burger featured in Deliveroo’s most popular 100 dishes globally of 2017, while quirky gifts in the limited-edition carrier bags include a squidgy unicorn toy and a hungry shark stress-ball. The deal is available exclusively on Deliveroo’s app from noon on Friday (26 January) for one day only. MeatLiquor co-founder and managing director Scott Collins said: “The Ecstatic Meal is a treat for those who are scrimping towards the end of the month.” Joe Groves, of Deliveroo, said: “At a price that doesn’t leave anyone out in the cold, we hope to banish the blues – if only for a day.” Collins founded MeatLiquor with Yianni Papoutsis in 2011, initially operating from a burger van. It opened its first permanent site shortly after and there are now 14 sites across the UK, including two Deliveroo-only venues, in Canary Wharf and Battersea.

The Adil Group gets go-ahead for second Scottish Taco Bell site: The Adil Group, which operates more than 120 KFC, Burger King and Costa Coffee sites across the UK, has been given the go-head to open its second Taco Bell restaurant in Scotland. The company has been granted permission by Renfrewshire Council to build the two-storey venue, which will feature a drive-thru, in the Phoenix Retail Park in Paisley, reports the Daily Record. The application stated: “The space will provide internal seating for 102 people, an external area to accommodate an additional 12 seats, and also the convenience of the drive-thru facility.” The Adil Group opened the first Scottish Taco Bell last month in Glasgow and has plans to expand the brand to “double-digit” figures across the country over the next five years.

Zing Zing closes crowdfunding campaign after raising £1.2m, double original target: Zing Zing, the north London-based Chinese takeout concept, has closed its campaign on crowdfunding platform Crowdcube after raising more than double its original £500,000 target. The company, founded by Josh Magidson, who sold his startup business to Just Eat in 2010, raised the funds for further expansion in return for an 8.68% equity stake. In total, 1,016 investors pledged £1,215,430 and the campaign has now closed. The largest single investment was £140,000. The pitch stated: “Zing Zing is revolutionising the £1.4bn Chinese takeout industry by offering Chinese cuisine with a modern and healthy twist, cooked fresh to order and delivered fast. We have four units in London. Our revenue in 2016 was £1.23m with Ebitda of minus £300,000 (including a £93,000 spend from our last Crowdcube raise in 2016). We have seen sales grow by 75% to October and are profitable at store level since October. There are shareholders’ loans in the business. The UK home delivery market is worth an estimated £6.1bn and grew by 11% last year, yet we estimate no one brand accounts for more than 1% of it – it is exceptionally fragmented. Our flagship Zing Box meal is hugely popular, with 38,000 sold in 2016. We see 70% of delivery orders come through our online platform and we now have a database of 55,000 customers.” Magidson reported record trading on New Year’s Day, with 880 orders taking circa £18,000.

Turtle Bay to open Sheffield site in June: Caribbean restaurant Turtle Bay is to open a site in Sheffield in June. The company will open the venue in the former National Union of Mineworkers building in Holly Street, which is undergoing a £5m redevelopment. Turtle Bay was cleared to open the restaurant in February following a legal tussle with the city council after health and safety fears led councillors to ban waiters from carrying food and drink up and down a staircase, which Turtle Bay said would “seriously affect” the operation. Turtle Bay will be one of three foodservice operators to occupy the building, with Marston’s Pitcher & Piano brand already confirmed alongside an as yet unnamed restaurant. Turtle Bay, which is backed by Piper Private Equity and was formed by Las Iguanas co-founder Ajith Jaya-Wickrema, has 40 restaurants across the UK and two in Germany.

Team behind Manchester restaurant Ban di Bul lines up second site in city: The team behind Manchester restaurant Ban di Bul has lined up its second site in the city. A licence application has been lodged with the city council to launch a Korean barbecue house in the Old Half Moon Chambers building in Chapel Walks. The new restaurant, Ann Yeong, would take over the basement, ground and first floors of the building with proposed opening hours of 11am to 1.30am. Hoardings on the building feature the Ban di Bul branding and proclaim it will be the “north west’s biggest Korean barbecue house”, reports the Manchester Evening News. The site has been empty since wine bar and restaurant Grinch, operated by Mud Crab Industries, closed in 2016. Ban di Bul opened in Princess Street in 2011, offering traditional Korean dishes and an on-table barbecue dining experience.

Pizza Hut Delivery shortlists four agencies for advertising account: Pizza Hut Delivery has shortlisted four agencies for its advertising account – Atomic, Creature of London, Gravity Road and Iris Worldwide. Pizza Hut Delivery, whose account is moving from Ogilvy & Mather, met eight agencies before Christmas and held tissue meetings last week. Final pitches are due next week and AAR helped with the agency selection, reports Campaign.

Lancashire-based operators open Bury restaurant for second site: Lancashire-based operators Ata Mubeen and Luke Rafferty have opened a restaurant in Bury town centre for their second site in the county. They have launched West Ivy at The Rock shopping centre, creating 20 jobs. The decor is based on a botanical theme, with Italian marble and filament lighting, accompanied by a soundtrack of Motown, R ‘n’ B, blues, hip-hop and soul. The menu includes afternoon tea and world food such as hanging barbequed skewers, steak, burgers, halloumi fries, and Brazilian curry. The drinks menu ranges from craft lager, cocktails and gin to artisan coffee, freakshakes and a candy floss prosecco. The duo opened their debut site, Smoke Yard, in Oldham in 2015. Arnold Wilcox-Wood, centre director at The Rock, told the Bury Times: “This is a great addition to our tenant line-up and complements our leisure offering very well. They have had great success in Oldham and we wish them every success here.”

M&B to open Miller & Carter site in Aberdeen this spring: Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) is to open a site for its Miller & Carter steakhouse brand in Aberdeen this spring. The company will open the restaurant in former Union Street department store Esslemont & Macintosh, which closed in May 2007 when owners Owen Owen entered administration. The property was placed on the buildings at risk register in 2013 and has been there since, reports the Evening Express. Meanwhile, M&B is to convert its Harvester restaurant in Hinckley, Derbyshire, to a Miller & Carter site. The building in Watling Street is being refurbished and is set to reopen on Friday, 9 March, reports the Hinckley Times.