Stonegate seeking to sell 1,000 pubs to pay down debt: Stonegate Pub Company spent about £1.3bn buying rival Ei Group just before the pandemic, becoming Britain’s biggest pub group. Bloomberg reports that three years on – and with a £2.6bn debt pile – the owner of the Slug and Lettuce chain is ready to scale back. Stonegate, owned by private equity firm TDR Capital, plans to sell 1,000 of its pubs, or more than a fifth of the total, for an estimated £800m, people familiar with the matter said. Like chains across the UK, the pub giant has struggled to make up ground lost during the pandemic, albeit the sale is aimed at paying down its debts. Soaring energy bills, persistent labour shortages and decades-high inflation are driving up costs, while some customers are choosing to drink at home. “The biggest concern is energy,” Ian Payne, Stonegate’s chairman, said in an interview. “We know what we’re going to pay in February and March, but we still don’t know what we’re going to pay beyond that.” The chain has appointed real estate investment bank Eastdil Secured to advise on its planned pub sale, which is likely to kick-off by spring, the people familiar said, asking not to be identified discussing private matters. Deal making is expected to recover in the spring from the shock of rapidly rising borrowing costs that effectively froze the commercial property market in the final quarter of last year. A spokesperson for Eastdil declined to comment. A Stonegate representative declined to comment on the potential sale.
Two days to go before the next edition of The New Openings Database release, to show details of 267 new sites, 12,700-word report included: The next edition of The New Openings Database will show the details of 267 newly announced site openings and upcoming launches for Premium subscribers when it is published on Friday (3 February) at midday, including which company has opened a site or its plans to open one in the future. It will have details on what type of site it is and its location, and there will also be a website link to the businesses. The database is published on a monthly basis, and the next edition features growing restaurant and bar brands, niche cuisine, and expanding experiential concepts. Premium subscribers will also receive a 12,700-word report on the new additions to the database. Premium subscribers also receive access to four other databases: the
Propel Multi-Site Database, produced in association with Virgate; the
Propel Turnover & Profits Blue Book; the
UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database; and the
Who’s Who of UK Food and Beverage, which was sent to Premium subscribers for the first time last week. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Propel Premium for a year for £895 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or a supplier. The single subscription rate is £445 plus VAT for operators and £545 plus VAT for suppliers.
Email jo.charity@propelinfo.com to upgrade your subscription. Subscribers also receive access to Propel’s library of Friday Wrap interviews and also have access to a curated video library of the sector’s finest leaders and entrepreneurs, offering their insights on running outstanding businesses in the sector. Premium subscribers also receive their morning newsletter 11 hours early, at 7pm the evening before our 6am send-out; regular video content and regular exclusive columns from Propel group editor Mark Wingett.
Food price inflation sees cost of weekly shop cost rise at record rate: Shop prices rose at a record rate in January as sugar shortages and the end of Christmas discounts pushed up prices in supermarkets, adding to concerns that inflation in the price of everyday items will continue to rise. The Times reports growth in shop prices hit 8% last month compared with the same period last year, according to the latest monthly index by the British Retail Consortium and NielsenIQ. The rate of price rises has accelerated from 7.3% in December. Inflation in shops has been driven by the soaring price of fresh food after producers grappled with months of supply chain disruptions, rising energy bills and a surge in the cost of animal feed and fertiliser. The price of sugar has jumped in the past couple of months after delays to harvests and export controls in India, which is the world’s biggest exporter after Brazil. Fresh food prices rose at a rate of 15.7% at the start of the year, up from 15% in December. The pace for all food items reached 13.8% in January, up from 13.3% the month before, while inflation in the price of non-food items rose to 5.1%, up from 4.4% in December. Inflation in all three categories is at a record high, according to the analysis of prices between 1 and 7 January. The shop price index is based on a basket of 500 essential goods, half of which are food items. It does not include utilities, fuel or any other categories that are included in calculating the consumer price index (CPI), the headline measure of inflation. Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said that while food prices remained high, “clothing and footwear prices eased, so customers were able to replenish their wardrobes with some bargains during the January sales”. Dickinson said that declines in the global cost of food and oil would ease some of the pressure on retailers, but she added that prices still had further to rise in light of soaring energy bills and labour shortages.
The high street coffee shops with the most caffeine in their cups revealed: A new study has revealed the “huge” differences in the amount of caffeine in coffees from leading high street chains like Costa, Starbucks and Pret A Manger. Which? found that a medium cappuccino at Costa contains a “massive” 325mg of caffeine – around the amount contained in four cups of tea and almost five times stronger than a Starbucks cappuccino. While the variations are not only due to the number of caffeine shots used across the chains, nutritionists say you may be consuming “significantly more or less caffeine than you bargained for”. The study found that cappuccinos from Greggs and Pret A Manger contain significantly less caffeine than Costa, at 197mg and 180mg respectively. By comparison, a 250ml can of Red Bull contains 80mg of caffeine. When it comes to a single espresso, one from Starbucks contains a “meagre” 33mg of caffeine – meaning at 180mg, one from Pret contains almost six times more. On filter coffee, Pret A Manger led the way with the most caffeine at 271mg – two-and-a-half times as much as the Starbucks version, which contained 102mg. Greggs was a close second containing 225mg. The variations are also due to the type of coffee beans used, of which there are two main types – Arabica and Robusta. Arabica beans contain around half the caffeine of Robusta beans, and there are also variations in taste between the two. Which? nutritionist Shefalee Loth said the research shows you may be consuming significantly more, or less, caffeine than you bargained for. “Our analysis has shown that there are big variations in caffeine content between drinks from different high-street coffee shops. Most of the time this shouldn’t be an issue but if you drink a lot of coffee or need to limit your caffeine intake you might want to consider what you’re ordering and where from.” A Costa Coffee spokeswoman said: “The amount of caffeine included within each coffee varies, depending on both the coffee and size of drink ordered by a customer.” Pret A Manger declined to comment.
