Thomas Kelly to move to chair at Honest Burgers: Honest Burgers, the Active Partners-backed business, has announced that Thomas Kelly, who joined the business at the start of this year as its chief executive, is to step up to become its chairman from next month. At the same time, Matt Brandon, the 39-strong company’s chief financial officer, will step up to become its interim chief executive. Kelly started out at McDonald’s as a graduate trainee, working his way to become a member of the executive board as vice-president in the UK, and then chief executive in Finland and Sweden, where he delivered seven consecutive quarters of profitable sales growth and 40% Ebitda growth in three years. More recently, Kelly was global executive director at Costa Coffee. Honest Burgers said that in his new role, Kelly will steer the board through the next phase of the brand’s growth, whilst relinquishing his executive operational leadership role to allow him to focus on other opportunities. Brandon joined Honest in April 2022, after more than a year as group financial controller at the then Snowfox Group, the owner of YO! Sushi. Previous to that, he spent eight years at Restaurant Brands International (RBI), including a stint as vice president and head of global finance for Popeyes. Honest Burgers said it has been experiencing “exceptional sales growth” recently with 22 months of consecutive like-for-like growth, delivered through strong growth in like-for-like covers. In the first six months of this year sales were up 14%, delivering over 50% improvement in Ebitda performance. Earlier this week, the business reported a record-breaking year of delivery, with like-for-like delivery sales up 22% over the last six months, driven by covers growth of 16%. At the same time, the burger business extended its exclusive partnership with Uber Eats until 2026, and said it will “leverage its popularity on Uber Eats to help its UK expansion over the next 12 months”.

Premium Club members to receive latest UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database today: Premium Club members will receive the latest UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database today (Wednesday, 14 August), at midday. It will feature 11 new additions, while one former entry that is no longer trading has been removed. This brings the total number of featured companies to 270, with more than 145,000 words of content. Among the new additions are Japanese sushi takeaway brand Iso Sushi, which is aiming to become “the UK’s go-to destination for takeaway sushi”; Knot Churros, which describes itself as offering “the world’s first churros afternoon tea and churros cotton candy combo”; Irish neighbourhood restaurant concept The Pantry, which currently has 14 sites in Ireland; and Korean street food concept Bunsik, which is the first concept to be franchised by multi-brand business Maguro Group. Premium Club members also receive access to five other databases: the Multi-Site Database, produced in association with Virgate; the New Openings Database; the Propel Turnover & Profits Blue Book; the UK Food and Beverage Franchisee Database and the Who’s Who of UK Hospitality. All Premium Clubs members will be offered a 20% discount on tickets to Propel paid-for events including the Talent and Training Conference (1 October), Restaurant Marketer and Innovator (two days in January 2025) and Excellence in Pub Retail (May 2025). Operators that are Premium Club members are also able to send up to four members of staff to each of our four Multi-Club Conferences for free. Premium Club members receive their daily Propel Info newsletter 11 hours earlier than standard subscribers, at 7pm the evening before. They also receive videos of presentations at eight Propel conference events two weeks after they are held. This represents around 100 videos of industry insight over the course of the year. Premium Club members will be sent a dedicated monthly newsletter that will highlight key updates in the sector and direct subscribers to all the vital content their membership offers. Premium Club members also receive exclusive opinion columns every Friday at 5pm, which include the thoughts of Propel group editor Mark Wingett and a host of industry leaders from across the sector. A Premium Club subscription costs an annual sum of £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Premium Club for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or supplier. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com today to sign up.

Sector unites behind rates reform call, as new survey shows impact of costs: Sector trade bodies have come together to call for business rates reform, as a new survey reveals how almost every hospitality business has seen steep increases in wages and food costs over the past year. According to findings of a new survey by the British Beer and Pub Association, British Institute of Innkeeping, Hospitality Ulster and UKHospitality, year-on-year, 95% of hospitality businesses have experienced increased wage costs. It’s a similar story for food (89%), insurance (84%) and energy (57%) costs. Hospitality businesses are overwhelmingly in favour of reforming business rates, a government manifesto commitment, to help reduce costs, which must be a priority at the Budget, with 80% of respondents clear it would have a positive impact on their business. In addition to business rates reform, businesses said both a VAT reduction for hospitality (85%) and a reduction in alcohol duty (34%) would be an important measure to allow their business to grow. In a joint statement, the trade bodies said: “It’s crystal clear that there is an overwhelming desire from the hospitality sector that the Government rapidly delivers on its manifesto commitment to replace business rates and reduce the burden on high street businesses, as well as continue current support. Hospitality continues to remain an outlier sector, with costs continuing to rise sharply compared to the rest of the economy. With cost increases affecting almost every venue, this vital sector is being prevented from investing in businesses and communities, which would boost economic growth and new jobs. Instead, they’re having to use dwindling cash reserves just to pay the bills. The clock is ticking, with a cliff-edge looming on 1 April when relief ends and rates are set to increase again. Inaction would see bills spiral yet further, putting venues under increased threat of closure. Alongside our members, we hope to see clear and decisive action toward delivering on the government’s manifesto commitment from the chancellor at the Budget in October.”