St Austell Brewery hires Andrew Turner to new beer and brands role: Cornish independent brewer and pub company, St Austell Brewery has announced the appointment of Andrew Turner to the newly created role of managing director, beer and brands. Turner, currently trading director with Heineken UK, will join St Austell Brewery to lead the company’s own beer and wholesale drinks business. Kevin Georgel, chief executive said: “I am delighted that Andy will be joining St Austell Brewery. With almost 20 years’ experience and success gained within Heineken UK, he brings the ideal experience, talents and personality to compliment the skills of the existing team, and to lead our beer and brands division into its next exciting chapter.” Andrew Turner, managing director, beer and brands, said: “I am absolutely thrilled to be joining St Austell Brewery – a wonderful family business which brews fantastic beers and runs great pubs, both of which are very close to my heart. It’s a really exciting time to join the business. I believe St Austell Brewery is very well placed to benefit from the resurgence in consumer interest in beer, coupled with the increasing importance of authenticity and community. I am very much looking forward to joining Kevin and the team and taking the business on to its next stage of growth.” This latest high-profile appointment to St Austell Brewery’s leadership team comes one month after Kevin Georgel became chief executive and less than a year after Georgina Young joined the company from Fuller’s, as head brewer of Bath Ales – which St Austell Brewery acquired in 2016.

New World Trading Company to open debut Welsh site next week for 20th The Botanist: Graphite Capital-backed pub restaurant group The New World Trading Company will open its debut Welsh site next week. The Botanist will come to Cardiff on Monday (10 February), marking the brand’s 20th site. The venue will open in Church Street offering the brand’s seasonal menu alongside cocktails, mocktails and gin. General manager Alex Budge said: “The space brings together the best elements of the traditional pub, reinvented for Cardiff.” New World Trading Company also operates The Florist, The Oast House, The Trading House and The Canal House brands. The company is scheduled to open further Botanist sites this year in Lincoln (April) and Preston (June). The group is understood to have three more sites lined up for the second half of 2020, including another site for The Florist.

Compass Group reports organic revenue growth of 5.3% in most recent Quarter: Contract caterer Compass Group has reported organic revenue for the three months to 31 December 2019 grew by 5.3%, driven by strong levels of new business wins and good retention rates, particularly in North America. The company stated: “The cost action programme, which was announced in November, is progressing as expected and the benefits are offsetting the anticipated impact of lower Business & Industry volumes in Europe. Organic revenue in North America increased by 7.5%, with particularly strong growth in Business & Industry, Healthcare and Education. In Europe, as anticipated, organic revenue was flat year on year as it was impacted by the expected volume softness in Business & Industry and a less favourable Sports & Leisure calendar. These headwinds were offset by a good performance from Turkey and our Central and Eastern European region. Organic revenue in Rest of World increased by 4.7% supported by good levels of growth in Australia and LATAM. Currency movements, compared to the same quarter last year, had a negative translation impact on revenues and profit in the quarter of £71 million and £6 million respectively. If current spot rates were to continue for the remainder of the year, foreign exchange translation would negatively impact 2019 revenue by £745 million and operating profit by £61 million. In the first quarter the group spent £40 million on acquisitions. Our strategy is to make targeted and disciplined bolt-on acquisitions, focused on our core food offering, which strengthen our capabilities. There continues to be a pipeline of opportunities across the group. Following approval from the EU Competition Commission, we completed the acquisition of Fazer Food Services on 31 January 2020 for an initial cash consideration of approximately €420 million. We also continued to make progress with the disposal programme and have recently sold 50% of our Japanese Highways business for a consideration of £55 million, with agreement to sell the remainder over the next three years. We expect to make further progress with disposals throughout the year. We have had an encouraging start to the year and our outlook for 2020 remains unchanged with organic growth around the mid-point of our 4-6% guidance range whilst maintaining our strong margin In the longer-term, we remain excited about the significant structural growth opportunities globally, and the potential for further revenue and profit growth combined with further returns to shareholders.”