Adam Breeden signs City of London Puttshack site: The founder of Bounce ping-pong bars and co-founder of Flight Club darts bars it to open a crazy gold brand in City of London. Adam Breeden, who also founded All Star Lanes bowling, is to open a crazy golf bar in the basement of the iconic 1 Poultry building. Puttshack is a crazy golf concept using advanced technology to add additional challenges and prizes to the course. Like Bounce, it will be accompanied by an extensive food and drink offering. Three Puttshacks are lined up as part of a £15m investment in the brand. The City of London site will be the flagship for the new brand, opening towards the end of this year or early next year. Speaking to City AM, Breeden estimated that between £5.5m and £7.5m will go into setting up the 1 Poultry site. It will be the first site inside the Square Mile run by Breeden’s company Social Entertainment Ventures, which is the parent company of Bounce. “For a long period of time the City was a bit of a no man’s land of things to do but also there wasn’t necessarily the market or the understanding that people travel to the City,” he told City AM. “In the last few years certainly there has been a big shift and I think east London’s had a lot to do with this.” He credited the development of Shoreditch with increasing the number of visitors to the City, and said that the opening of Soho House founder Nick Jones’s The Ned had proved that consumers will travel to the City for the “right experience”. The first Puttshack is set to open in April this year at Westfield in White City. Another site is also lined up for Intu Lakeside in Essex. The idea was co-created by the team behind Bounce and the founders of Topgolf, a golf entertainment brand which now has 40 branches around the world.

Britvic reports First Quarter revenue up 3.3%: Britvic has reported First Quarter revenue of £337.2m, an increase of 3.3% on the prior year. Organic revenue, which excludes the Bela Ischia acquisition, increased 0.7%. Chief executive Simon Litherland said: “We have delivered a solid start to the new financial year, with group revenue growing 3.3% ahead of a strong first quarter last year. As we said at our preliminary results, the introduction of a soft drinks industry levy in the UK and Ireland brings a level of uncertainty, but we are well placed to navigate this given the strength and breadth of our brand portfolio and exciting marketing and innovation plans. In addition, our continued focus on revenue and cost management and the delivery of the final phase of our business capability programme means we remain confident of making further progress in 2018.” The company added: “GB revenue increased 1.0% as GB carbonates continued to outperform the market. Carbonates revenue increased 4.9%, driven by the continued success of Pepsi MAX in a very competitive market. GB stills revenue declined 6.6% with a volume decline of 4.4%. In the second quarter, we are launching the more premium Robinsons “Fruit Creations” and “Cordials” ranges into grocery, supported by a multichannel advertising campaign. With Palmer and Harvey entering administration, we have absorbed a number of one-off costs. However, we do not anticipate any longer-term impact with our customer base now being supplied by other wholesalers. France revenue declined 5.0% in a subdued market, and lapping a strong comparative last year when revenue increased 6.3%. A decline in syrups was partly offset by growth in the Pressade juice brand. Ireland revenue increased 16.5%, benefiting from the acquisition of East Coast in the second quarter last year, which has improved our presence in the growing on-trade channel. Owned-brand revenue also increased, due to positive price/mix, led by the stills portfolio. International revenue declined 8.1%, compared to a 19.8% increase in quarter one last year which followed the launch of the Fruit Shoot multipack in the United States. Brazil revenue increased 22.6%, benefiting from the acquisition of Bela Ischia in the second quarter last year. Organic revenue declined 6.5%, reflecting the continuation of the challenging consumer environment. The collective consultation on the proposed closure of our Norwich factory has ended and the site will close in 2019. Every effort will be made to support affected employees to find new roles or alternative employment. The final phase of the business capability programme will result in the creation of c.80 new roles at our Rugby site, with the introduction of new lines and warehousing. It is anticipated that we will incur approximately £35m-£40m of one-off costs this year, primarily in relation to the business capability programme and the closure of Norwich, with a proportion of the cash impact realised in 2019. We are now in the final phase of transforming our supply chain, which will deliver significant cost and commercial benefits.”