Exclusive – Soho House acquires Hush Mayfair for new club: Soho House is to open a new venue in London’s Mayfair, after acquiring the iconic Hush restaurant site, Propel has learned. The sale of the townhouse site in Lancashire Court, which was owned by the Jamie Barber-founded Hush Collection, has been sold on the 24th anniversary of its opening. Barber told Propel: “After almost four years of conversations and 24 years after Geoffrey Moore and I opened the doors, I’m delighted to announce that we have agreed to sell Hush to Soho House for a substantial premium. Hush holds a special place in my heart and has been a permanent part of my life since my late 20s. So, in celebration of 24 glorious years, we raise a glass of champagne to the hundreds and thousands of customers we have looked after during such a long and successful run – the first dates, engagements, birthdays, and milestones that have been celebrated here. We have provided jobs for hundreds upon hundreds of remarkable people who have always considered Hush to be an extension of their family. Over almost a quarter of a century, we have witnessed so many magical moments; Sir Roger Moore’s many birthday parties, to Victoria Beckham making martinis behind the bar; Bill Clinton going into the kitchen to shake hands with the kitchen porters, and Giorgio Armani getting lost in the basement. We have countless happy memories and are delighted to be going out on a high. Hush will be popping up in Holborn as part of our celebration tour and many of our team members are making the move; we hope that our Hush regulars will pop-in and join us for a glass of bubbly! I have been a Soho House member since before I opened Hush in 1999 and I’m a strong supporter of the group and its team. I understand that Soho House will be opening a pretty exclusive club on our Hush site late next year, which sounds like it will be invite-only for certain members and that’s exciting to hear. Nick Jones [Soho House founder] and I started talking about this partnership before covid and I'm delighted that, in his words, ‘we finally got married after a very long engagement’. Strategically, our group is now free of bank debt and has a significant war chest with which Ed Standring [Hush Collection chief executive] and I can consider options and opportunities. In this market, that's a privileged position to be in.” Earlier this summer, The Hush Collection sold its Cabana site in Westfield London to Rosa’s Thai, which is backed by TriSpan, as it looks to focus the brand on wet-led and entertainment-driven locations. The business, which also operates the Hache Brasserie concept, said the sale of the Westfield London site would bring it closer to its goal of “refocusing and repositioning the Hush Collection restaurant group”. Hush Collection features in the Propel Multi-Site Database. The next edition will be sent to Premium subscribers at midday today (Friday, 24 November). The comprehensive database, which is produced in association with Virgate, now features 3,060 companies. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Propel Premium for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or a supplier. The single subscription rate is £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com to upgrade your subscription.

UK business activity grows marginally in November: Britain’s business activity showed signs of picking up this month, according to a closely watched snapshot of private sector output. The first “flash” reading of the S&P Global CIPS PMI composite output index came in at 50.1 for November, the first positive reading in four months, reports The Times. Any reading above 50 implies an expansion of overall output. The number was higher than consensus expectations and above the 48.6 posted for October and 48.5 in September. Tim Moore, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said the modest pick-up came amid relief over the pause in interest rate rises and a clear slowdown in headline measures of inflation, which are helping to support business activity. However, both input costs and average prices charged increased at faster rates than in October. In the service sector, which accounts for the bulk of the UK economy and includes hospitality, companies reported the sharpest rise in their average charges since July, largely because of their higher staff costs. S&P cautioned about reading too much into the data, pointing out that total new order intakes had decreased for the fifth month running, “which suggested that subdued underlying demand conditions persisted”. The data showed the services sector business activity index rose from 49.5 to 50.5, a four-month high. The manufacturing sector scored a still contractionary 47.9, but this was up from 44.3 in October and the highest reading for five months.