Premium Club members to receive next Turnover & Profits Blue Book today 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 today (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 Tim Shield, partner at leading sector licensing firm John Gaunt, examining all the key legal developments that impacted multi-site operators in 2024, setting out the latest legislation impacting the industry, and analysing the immediate and long-term legislative commitments a new government must consider if it is to aid the sector’s return to growth. Meanwhile, Gillian Nicholson, sales director at Zonal, talks to Rosie Lewis-Marsh, advisor to Our Yummy Collection, and Kat Schofield, head of sales and marketing at Gusto, about customer loyalty in hospitality and how this compares with other sectors, including a deep dive into the DNA of loyalty and what that means outside of loyalty programmes and reward schemes. 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. In this week’s Premium Opinion, Graeme Smith, managing director at AlixPartners, models the Budget’s impact on the sector and what factors businesses need to be wary of to understand which sites have the headroom to absorb higher costs. Meanwhile, Elliott Goldstein, managing partner The MBS Group, examines the progress of equity, diversity and inclusion within the hospitality, travel and leisure industries, and the areas that need improvement, and Meaningful Vision chief executive Maria Vanifatova looks at what to expect with pricing next year following the Budget. 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.

Nando’s expands apprenticeship programme to Scotland and launches full hospitality career pathway: Nando’s has expanded its apprenticeship programme to Scotland and launched a full hospitality career pathway. The company has opened applications for Level 2 to Level 5 apprenticeships in the country, to offer a full career pathway in the hospitality sector. It comes as Nando’s also launches its Level 5 apprenticeship in England, now offering a dedicated apprenticeship pathway from entry level to managing director. The Level 5 ‘Pathway to Strategic Leadership’ apprenticeship, which is certified by The Chartered Management Institute, provides Nando’s apprentices across England and Scotland with a clear development and career path to management. The launch of the programme in Scotland means opportunities are now available across more than 450 Nando’s restaurants. Nando’s has already welcomed 20 apprentices onto the programme in Scotland, and more than 20 apprentices onto the Level 5 Pathway to strategic leadership programme across Scotland and England in this cohort alone. Since launching the programme in England in 2017, and having launched its Hospitality Heros Level 2 programme in 2023, Nando’s has trained 350 apprentices across its restaurants and central support. Maria Horn, chief people officer at Nando’s, said: “At Nando’s we’re passionate about our people and championing rewarding careers in the hospitality sector. Our training and development standards are recognised as industry-leading in creating a clear career path and equipping people with the skills they need to get into, or back to, work. Introducing the Nando’s apprenticeship programme in Scotland brings this opportunity to even more future Nandocas across the UK and, together with the launch of our Level 5 apprenticeship programme in England, marks the next step in our investment in hospitality careers. We look forward to helping more Nandocas to rise up all the way from Level 2 to management level.”