Sponsored message – Tortilla makes almost £5,000 from a single SMS promotion: Tortilla brought in almost £5,000 from a single SMS Valentine’s Day promotion with Airship, The Hospitality CRM. The Mexican restaurant brand, which has more than 45 sites, ran a two-for-one on burritos for Valentine’s Day, sending out a text to more than 4,000 customers. SMS is proving to be a less crowded marketing method, with a 92% delivery rate for this campaign, and significant click through rate. Airship has set up a 3.5p rate per text to assist operators in driving footfall through SMS marketing. Annie O’Donoghue, Tortilla’s digital marketing manager, said: “We decided to trial using SMS for our two-for-one Valentine’s Day campaign as an additional prompt on the day, to drive traffic and purchases in-store. The SMS campaign had an impressive click-through rate of 30.84% and is definitely something we will be incorporating in our future campaign launches.” Interested in SMS and email marketing? Book a demo with Airship here. If you have a sponsored story you would like to see featured in this newsletter position, email paul.charity@propelinfo.com

McDonald’s Convenience of the Future digital orders offer 11 ways to get a meal: A new-look McDonald’s restaurant, unveiled today under the fast-food operator’s £250m Convenience of the Future investment programme, reflects customers’ increasingly diverse expectations, providing 11 ways of getting a meal. The Times reports the revamp also reflects the fact that about half of sales are now made through digital channels. In addition to the traditional walk-in and drive-thru, a redesign of the kitchens and dining areas caters to the growth of digital sales channels such as self-order touchscreen terminals and the McDonald’s app, as well as introducing a separate area for delivery riders. So, on a busy morning in the branch under the Bow flyover in east London, riders from Uber Eats or Just Eat can flit in and out of their dedicated service area without disturbing the walk-in, drive-thru or click-and-collect customers – or more accurately click-and-serve, as patrons are handed their food in a designated parking space. The Bow branch, one of the first three sites converted to the new format and already one of the chain’s busiest, will be followed by another 200 conversions this year, with 800 of the 1,465 branches across the UK and Ireland scheduled to be “reimagined” over the next four years. McDonald’s last big investment in its restaurants, which are 91%-franchised, was in 2015 when it spent £350m introducing self-order screens and table service. Gareth Pearson, McDonald’s chief operations officer, argues that one of the key benefits of the new systems in operation at Bow is that all food is made to order and can be customised, avoiding significant food waste yet without slowing down the preparation. “The only real waste is when somebody changes their mind on their order,” he said. According to the Yorkshireman, the first three conversions – in Bow and Peckham in London and Kirkby on Merseyside – are already generating increased customer satisfaction, while the new technology, equipment and improved work space are driving “a meaningful increase in sales” as staff respond to the new working environment. He said that customers demanded “choice in how and when they order and collect their food”, and added: “The pace of change within the restaurant industry is relentless and the pandemic accelerated this.”

Government urged to ‘act fast’ to remedy bouncer shortage: UK nightclubs have warned they are “running out of time” to find bouncers amid staff shortages which could impact the safety of customers on nights out. The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) and UK Door Security Association have cautioned that lives could be at risk without government intervention. The trade groups said that 75% of members surveyed – including nightclubs, bars and pubs – felt that security staff shortages were impacting on their ability to protect the public. Meanwhile, around 60% of businesses felt this was impacting on public confidence to go on nights out. Michael Kill, chief executive officer of the NTIA, said: “We are simply running out of time. The sector has been raising the alarm about security resource concerns for the last few years and we are only now slowly starting to engage with the government on this crisis. The summer is approaching very quickly, and we need a government intervention to remedy the situation before we are potentially subject to another tragedy where lives are lost, and we are left to take action retrospectively.” The figures come against a backdrop of an increased focus on the safety of women at night following anti-spiking campaigns and the recent recommendations by the Home Affairs Committee Inquiry into Spiking. The government is also expected to place a duty on businesses to protect the public from terrorist threats following recommendations from the Manchester Arena inquiry, the NTIA said. There was also a stern warning from 77% of businesses who thought the situation may deteriorate further as the most experienced security staff were diverted towards other roles or festivals over the summer. Bosses said the government needed to act now before staff resources potentially weakened as a result. Kill said: “The current Private Security Act is not fit for purpose, the regulator is struggling to control the market without the relevant tools and we are about to embark on one of the busiest event seasons for the last decade following on from the pandemic. Government needs to act – and act fast.”

David Thompson’s Long Chim to open UK debut site in London’s Chinatown: David Thompson will open a long-awaited UK debut site for his Thai restaurant concept Long Chim, in London’s Chinatown. The former Nahm chef has secured a site at 9 Horse & Dolphin Yard for an opening later this year. Reports earlier this year, revealed that Thompson was set to bring his Long Chim casual Thai restaurant format to London this year. Thompson currently runs Long Chim restaurants in Sydney, Perth and Dubai, having closed sites in Melbourne and Korea as a result of the pandemic. Pre-pandemic Thompson was linked with opening a Long Chim site in Battersea. Propel understands that the launch of Long Chim in the UK will be done in partnership with sector consultancy firm TGP International, which is led by Simon Wright and owned by Game Changers Investments (GCI). Its portfolio includes the multi-floor restaurant operation at 3 Henrietta Street in Covent Garden, plus the Vegan Dough Co. and The Gentlemen Baristas concepts. Last year investment company Aplomado Hospitality acquired a stake in GCI to aid its expansion and that of its concepts both nationally and internationally. Shelley Sandzer acted on the Chinatown deal. 

Investors dive into ‘cheap’ leisure sector: The number of private equity deals in the British leisure sector has risen from 12 to 26 in the past year, according to new research. The Times reports Mayer Brown, a law firm, said that funds were taking the opportunity to pick up assets at comparatively low prices before the sector’s full recovery from the pandemic. High-profile transactions include deals for Boxpark, best known for its venue in Shoreditch, east London, as well as Puttshack, a mini golf business, and Punch Pubs. According to the firm, turnaround funds in particular have been looking to buy businesses in the sector at a discount to their net asset value. These may have been able to stay afloat during the pandemic but may be perceived by other potential bidders as struggling. They may also be facing difficulties or have become less of a focus as international travel resumes. Mayer Brown said that because domestic businesses as a whole had been trading at a discount to their international peers, some leisure businesses were particularly attractive to private equity funds. There have been four deals for travel companies in the past year, compared with none the previous year as the travel sector resumes after covid. “UK leisure is primed for a bounce back and private equity firms know it,” Electra Callan, private equity partner at Mayer Brown, said. “The sharp rise in deals reflects the confidence funds have in the sector’s turnaround and the growth opportunities available, even for those that have done well from recent challenges to the sector.”

It’s a glass half-full for new-look high streets: Dog-grooming salons, vegetarian restaurants and micro-breweries are popping up in increasing numbers on high streets as young workers and families flock to independent shops. The Times reports the number of grooming salons for dogs has risen by 154% since 2017, according to Experian, the credit rating group. Vegetarian restaurants have more than doubled in the same time, accompanied by a rise of a fifth in the number of coffee shops and microbreweries, according to the study of 2,000 retail destinations. High streets are also adapting to older customers, it found. There are now 221% more shops selling hearing aids than there were in 2015, which represents the biggest rise across all types of stores. According to a separate analysis by Experian, demand for warehouse space for logistics and delivery companies has more than doubled after online retailers experienced four years’ growth in only a year during the pandemic. However, the move to online shopping, which accelerated during the pandemic, has forced closures in other types of business. The number of retailers specialising in electronics has fallen by 53%. The move to booking holidays and gambling online has lopped a fifth off the number of travel agents and bookmakers. Colin Grieves, managing director of Experian marketing services, said that people increasingly were using their local high streets to socialise with friends and family rather than simply to shop for essentials. “The growth in microbreweries and the craft beer industry bucks the trend against the wider pub sector, while the popularity of niche restaurants points towards a new health-conscious consumer,” he said. “For retail developers and planners, understanding these changes mean they can better evaluate their proposed locations for development, ensuring they meet the demands of the local community.”