Premium Club members to receive next Turnover & Profits Blue Book on Friday featuring more than 1,000 companies, videos from Multi-Club Conference on 22 November: Premium Club members will receive the next Turnover & Profits Blue Book on Friday (15 November), at noon. The database will feature 114 updated accounts and 16 new companies, taking the total to 1,110. A total of 644 companies are making a profit while 376 are making a loss. The Blue Book is updated each month and ranks companies by turnover, profit and profit conversion, listing directors' earnings for the past five years. Premium Club members will also receive all the videos from the final Propel Multi-Club Conference of 2024 on Friday, 22 November, at 9am. They include Des Gunewardena, founder of the D3 Collective and co-founder of D&D London, talking about his return to the hospitality sector, his three new projects with a focus on “landmark sites”, the need to provide alternative points of difference and his take on the London market. Meanwhile, Andy Hornby, chief executive of The Restaurant Group, talks to Propel group editor Mark Wingett about the company’s plans for Wagamama and Brunning & Price, the role the group’s concessions business plays, and his thoughts on where the wider sector goes from here. Premium Club members also receive access to five other databases: the Multi-Site Database, the New Openings Database, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database, 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 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.

Cake Box reports positive current trading, confident of opening at least 25 new stores by next spring: Cake Box, the specialist retailer of fresh cream cakes, has reported positive current trading and said it is confident of opening at least 25 new stores by next spring. In a trading update for the six months ended 30 September 2024, the company said trading has continued positively since the half year end, with total franchise sales 9.9% ahead in October 2024 and like-for-like sales up 4.0%, compared with the same period in the prior year. It said seven new franchise stores opened since the period end, taking the total to 14 new stores in the current financial year, and that it is confident in opening in excess of 25 new franchise stores by the year end. It comes after the business reported group revenue rose 4.3% to £18.7m (H1 FY24: £18.0m) in the first half, driven by increased volumes from 20 stores opened in the prior year. It’s Ebitda was up 11.9% from £3.1m to £3.5m and its pre-tax profit grew 16.3% from £2.4m to £2.8m. The company reported positive trading momentum in franchise store sales, with like-for-like sales growth of 2.0% for the half-year against strong comparatives of 6.2% growth in the same period last year. Its balance sheet showed net cash of £5.6m (H1 FY24: £5.9m) following the £700,000 purchase of land for the expansion of its Bradford depot. Franchise stores in operation increased to 232 as at 30 September 2024 (30 September 2023: 214), entering new locations such as Crewe, Greenwich and Lichfield. Franchise store sales were up 8.1% to £39.0m (H1 FY24: £36.1m), while franchise total sales including kiosks were up 7.6% to £41.5m (H1 FY24: £38.5m). Chief executive Sukh Chamdal said: “During the first half of the year, we delivered strong growth across key financial metrics and expanded our customer base, resulting in double digit increases in profits and dividends. Our store opening programme is gaining traction, with 14 new franchise stores opening in the year to date, compared to ten by the same date last year. This success gives us confidence in exceeding the store opening target set for the year. We enter the second half with ongoing positive trading momentum and are on track to deliver full year performance in line with market expectations. The board remains confident in the company’s long-term prospects, and we are making strategic progress in building a larger and more profitable business.”

 

Shops and restaurants to cut opening hours after national insurance raid: Rachel Reeves’s tax raid risks turning high streets into “ghost towns” for much of the week, as pubs, restaurants and shops prepare to shut earlier and open on fewer days. Retail and hospitality chiefs said they were actively looking at reducing opening hours in response to Reeves’s decision to raise employers’ national insurance contributions. It raises fears that the Budget will worsen problems for Britain’s high streets and leave town centres largely shuttered outside the busiest shopping days of the week, reports The Telegraph. Alan Morgan, chief executive of the Big Table Group, said he was looking at cutting back opening hours. “Nothing is out of scope at the moment as the damage caused by the National Insurance changes will be substantial,” he said. Morgan added that options being considered included reduced opening hours and cutting staff numbers, as well as price increases. Luke Johnson, the chairman of bakery chain Gail’s, said Reeves’s decision to raise the cost of doing business “only adds to the decline of town and city centres”. Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, said the Budget was “causing venues to consider cutting their opening hours, or even close on more days, to manage rising staffing costs”. She warned that the Budget “jeopardises full-time, full-service high streets and investment in them”. The British Institute of Innkeeping said more than 40% of its members were planning to reduce their trading hours in response to the Budget. Three-quarters plan to cut staff hours, meaning fewer people would be working at any given time.

 

Country split on working from home: More than five years after the start of the pandemic, four in ten of all workers in Britain are still working from home for at least part of the week. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that, as of last month, 28% of the country’s workforce are hybrid working, with 13% working from home full-time. The proportion of people working from home every day has been broadly stable for the past two years, while the number of hybrid workers has edged slightly higher. With the likes of shop workers, doctors and builders unable to work from home, 44% of people still commute to their place of work every day. The ONS said hybrid working is probably here to stay “but for some workers more than others”. It added: “While the trend in working only from home has fallen since 2021, a hybrid-working model, has become the “new normal” for around a quarter of workers.” Despite most workers’ preference to sometimes work from home if possible, bosses seem intent on making them go into the office more often. The vast majority of chief executives are still expecting a full return to pre-pandemic ways of by 2027, a survey from KPMG found.

 

Billionaire restaurateur Richard Caring to hand out one million free meals: He made his name catering for the rich and famous at a string of glitzy eateries – and now restaurant tycoon Richard Caring has set his sights on tackling child hunger. In a major new campaign, the restaurateur has pledged to hand out one million free meals by the end of 2025 to children in need. The owner of The Ivy brasserie chain, together with his wife Patricia and the Caring Family Foundation (TCFF), has committed to distribute 300,000 nutritious meals to Britain’s most deprived youngsters by the end of the year, along with 700,000 over the following 12 months. They have teamed up with charity the Felix Project to distribute meals cooked by volunteer chefs from Mr Caring's hospitality business empire, which also include London restaurants Scott's, J Sheekey and Sexy Fish. Caring said: “We believe that every child deserves access to hot, nutritious meals daily. This isn’t just about food – it is a commitment to tackle child poverty and food insecurity and bring hope to those who need it most. With the support of The Felix Project’s network, we will reach those children facing these challenges right here in our communities. Every meal we deliver is a step closer to our mission of a world free from hunger, harm and hurt.”