Tasty considers rebranding more of estate and selling underperforming sites, like-for-like sales compared with pre-covid levels ‘encouraging’: Wildwood operator Tasty has said it is considering rebranding more of its estate and selling underperforming restaurants as it reviews its expansion plans, with like-for-like sales compared with pre-covid levels ‘encouraging’. It comes as the company reported revenue of £44,027,000 for the year ending 25 December 2022, up 26% from £34,909,000 in 2021. Adjusted Ebitda (post IFRS 16) was £2.6m (2021: £8.0m, which included £1.9m of government grants). Pre-tax losses, which pre-IFRS 16 stood at £4,359,000 narrowed post-IFRS 16 to £1,687,000 (2021: £4,112,000). As previously reported, the group repaid and cancelled its unutilised Barclays Bank facility of £1.1m in during the period and is now debt free, with cash at bank of £7.0m on 25 December 2022 (2021: £11.0m). It is currently trading from 52 of its 54 restaurants. The company said inflationary pressure on labour, food and utilities impacted the business considerably but are now beginning to stabilise, and staff shortages are returning to more normal levels. It added that despite these pressures, like-for-like sales compared with pre covid-19 levels were “encouraging”. Chairman Keith Lassman said: “The group delivered strong sales growth, despite the severe impediments of transportation strikes, the World Cup and bad weather all coinciding with the most important trading period of the year. We have estimated the adverse sales impact of all these factors to be in excess of £0.65m. As reported in our interim results, the energy crisis and unprecedented inflationary costs suppressed the results further, significantly increasing our running costs. We reopened two Wildwood restaurants which were closed during the pandemic, and we are now trading from 52 restaurants out of a total estate of 54. We also converted Wildwood Loughton into a dim t in November 2022, with results which have exceeded expectations. Dim t has proved to be a robust brand over the last few years due to both a rise in popularity for Asian food and an increased demand for takeaway and delivery of this cuisine. Given the initial solid performance of this converted unit, we are currently considering other opportunities to rebrand within our estate. We have started a process to sell the two restaurants that remain closed, and we will also consider the sale or surrender of other underperforming sites. Delivery and takeaway have remained strong throughout the year but there has been a marginal shift towards dine-in. The sales performance for the start of 2023 has been better than initially expected, but it is still challenging. We believe that this is partially due to customers drawing upon personal savings built up during the pandemic and a resilience to conservative menu price increases. However, whether this resilience continues, remains to be seen in the coming months. The board expects the group’s profitability to continue to be impacted by both energy costs, which remain significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, and also increasing food costs. The group’s expansion plan of opening additional sites will be reviewed once inflation and the economy have stabilised.” No dividends were paid. Lassman added: “Performance to date is ahead of management expectations, although at this stage, it is difficult to predict the full extent of the cost of living crisis and input cost inflation and shortages. When the current energy cap reduces at the end of March 2023, with advice from our newly appointed energy brokers, we are adopting a revised strategy to reduce our energy costs.  We expect our customers to continue to enjoy eating out and relish the social occasion at Wildwood and dim t, but we will continue to focus on managing our cost base and increasing efficiencies within the business. We are living in very unpredictable times, both politically and economically, and these no doubt will continue to be factors in the performance of the group for the coming year.” At year end, the group employed just under 1,100 people across the business, an increase of 100 from the previous year. A new recruitment system has been rolled out to improve candidate selection and retention, and a comprehensive review of employee training and engagement has been undertaken. The company added: “While we welcome the removal of the temporary increase of National Insurance of 1.25% introduced in November 2022, the increases in April 2023 of the National Living Wage and general inflationary wage pressures will inevitably result in higher labour costs, which will be impossible to absorb completely. We continue to be committed to improving labour efficiency through a focus on the trading day-parts, forecasting and scheduling.” Tasty features in the Propel Turnover & Profits Blue Book. Its turnover of £44,027,000 is the 144th highest in the database. The Blue Book ranks companies by turnover, profit and profit conversion, listing directors’ earnings for the past five years. 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.

 

Updated Premium Database of Multi-Site Companies released tomorrow, 22 businesses being added: A total of 22 new multi-site companies, operating 92 sites, have been added to the next edition of the Propel Premium Database of Multi-Site Companies, which will be released tomorrow (Friday, 31 March), at midday. The updated Propel Multi-Site Database, which is produced in association with Virgate, includes regional restaurant operators, growing bakery brands, and expanding hotel operators. Premium subscribers will also receive a 2,000-word report on the new additions to the database. The comprehensive database is updated monthly and provides company names, the people in charge, how many sites each firm operates, its trading name and its registered name at Companies House if different. The database now features 2,811 companies. Premium subscribers will also receive the next edition of the New Openings Database on Thursday, 6 April, at midday. It focuses on newly announced openings and upcoming launches in the sector and is updated every month. The next edition also includes a 6,000-word report on the new additions to the database. Premium subscribers also receive access to three other databases: the Propel Turnover & Profits Blue Book; the UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database; and the Who’s Who of UK Food and Beverage. 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. Premium subscribers are also to be given exclusive access to the recording and slides to Propel Multi-Club Conferences. Premium subscribers also receive their morning newsletter 11 hours early, at 7pm the evening before; regular video content and regular exclusive columns from Propel group editor Mark Wingett.

 

Takeaway wrappers should have customer licence plates printed on them to stop littering, says MP: Fast food takeaway wrappers should have customers’ licence plates printed on them to stop littering, a Conservative MP has said. James Wild, MP for North West Norfolk, said he wanted details of vehicle licence plates on food wrappers sold to passengers to make it less likely they will discard litter in the countryside. It comes after ministers changed the law to allow councils to issue the keeper of a vehicle from which litter is thrown with a civil penalty, rather than have to prove who had discarded the rubbish. Mr Wild, a former government adviser, told the Telegraph: “Anyone driving on country roads or who’s joined a litter pick up will be familiar with discarded fast food litter. Outlets should play their part in helping tackle the blight caused and technology could help, especially with increased fines announced in the anti-social behaviour plan this week. I’ll continue to press Defra (Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs) and the industry to look more closely at this idea.” John Read, the founder of the campaign group Clean Up Britain, said: “This is a very good idea and we’ve been campaigning for it for many years. Britain is suffering from a litter epidemic and fast-food litter is ubiquitous. The government should make it mandatory for every drive-through fast food restaurant to install ANPR (automatic number plate recognition). McDonald’s are already trialling this technology for commercial reasons, it should now also be used as a deterrent and for enforcement. Britain is awash with fast food litter. We need to fight back against the selfish and lazy litter louts who are polluting our country. There should be zero tolerance of this anti-social behaviour.” However Lord Robathan, a former government minister who campaigns for children to be made more aware of littering, said: “I am not against it but it would be fraught with legal problems. We need to educate children over time not to throw litter.” Ministers are currently cool on the plan. Rebecca Pow, an environment minister, told MPs: “Defra does not intend to carry out a formal assessment of the potential merits of requiring drive-through fast food outlets to implement a vehicle registration number printing system for packaging. We have concerns that the additional burden this would place on businesses and those responsible for enforcement would outweigh the benefits. We support voluntary initiatives aimed at reducing litter.” It emerged last year that the Welsh government had held meetings with McDonald’s to talk about a scheme to print car registration numbers on the restaurant chain’s takeaway wrappers. Plaid Cymru first proposed the idea two years ago, during the pandemic. The party launched a petition for fast food companies to print car registration plates on takeaway bags as littering increased as more people started to use drive-thrus.

Howard Schultz in union with Starbucks: Howard Schultz, the former boss of Starbucks, has defended himself and the coffee chain against allegations of “union busting” at a US Senate committee hearing in Washington. The Times reports that the Seattle-based company has denied allegations that it illegally dismissed pro-union baristas or spied on workers as hundreds of stores organised unions, starting in late 2021. Starbucks said it did not violate labour law by offering new benefits — including higher wages, student loan repayment tools and a savings account programme — only to non-unionised stores, as the National Labor Relations Board has alleged. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate health, education, labour and pensions committee, told Schultz: “Starbucks has waged the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country”. Schultz replied: “These are allegations and Starbucks has not broken the law.” Schultz, who left his third stint as chief executive on 20 March, said he did not have any direct role in sacking workers who supported the union or closing unionised stores. He remains on the company’s board. His return as Starbucks’ interim leader in April last year was “95% focused on the operations of the business” and his involvement in its union strategy had been “de minimis”, he said. The shares rose $1.90, or 1.9%, to close at $100.62.

UK poised to join trans-Pacific trade bloc: The UK is poised to join a major trade bloc with 11 other nations – including Australia, Canada and Japan – with reports British membership of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) could be sealed as soon as tomorrow. Negotiations between Britain and existing members of the CPTPP have been taking place since September 2021. Those talks now appear to have reached a successful conclusion, with claims a virtual ceremony will be held late tomorrow to welcome the UK into the bloc. A diplomat from one member nation told Politico that negotiations are “done” and the UK’s membership is “all agreed”. They added that trade ministers from the bloc will meet virtually late on Thursday to “put the seal on it all”. Other members include Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Trade experts said British membership of the bloc would now give it “equivalent economic weight” to the EU and could even encourage the US to rejoin. China, Taiwan, Ecuador and South Korea are also applying to join CPTPP – one of the largest free trade areas in the world. It has been estimated there would be a combined GDP among member nations of £11 trillion if the UK joins. But there has recently been claims of clashes between Cabinet ministers over the terms of UK membership, amid fears countries such as Canada and Mexico could flood British markets with cheap beef and pork, reports the Daily Mail. A spokesman for the Department for Business and Trade said: “We are making great progress on the UK’s accession to CPTPP and aim to conclude talks at the earliest opportunity. The Government is working to ensure that the UK joins on terms that work for British business and are in line with domestic priorities.” Shanker Singham, a fellow at the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: “UK accession to the CPTPP would be a seismic geo-economic event. For the first time, a major G7 country has chosen to accede to a regional grouping not because it is part of that region, but because it represents liberal values and provides economic opportunities. If the UK succeeds in acceding to the CPTPP, it becomes much more than just a regional agreement; it becomes a real challenge to the outdated World Trade Organisation system and could encourage that system to embrace reform.”