Exclusive – Cote explores funding options: Cote, the French brasserie brand backed by the Partners Group, is working with advisors on its funding options, to aid the next stage of its growth, Propel has learned. The circa 70-strong business is understood to be working with advisors at Interpath in exploring its investment options, as it looks to carry out a transformation programme under new chief executive Emma Dinnis, the former managing director of the DFS-owned Sofology, who joined the business earlier this year. Partners Group acquired Cote out of administration in September 2020 in a deal valued at £55m. In March, Cote told Propel that the refurbishments it had carried out in the last 12 months had proved a “massive hit with our guests” and led to it making some strategic decisions on some of its other sites. The company refurbished eight sites over the past 12 months and will look to build on this over the next 12 months and beyond. At the same time, it closed “a small number” of sites that are “no longer in the right location for our growth plan”. In the spring, the company hired Dinnis as its new chief executive. Dinnis joined Côte after three years as managing director of Sofology. Previous to that, she spent two years as chief customer officer at M&Co and 12-and-a-half years at Topshop/Topman, including three years as its global retail director. She has also worked at Ikea and Marks & Spencer. Last month, Propel revealed that Jane Holbrook, the former chief executive of Wagamama, had stepped down as chair of Cote after almost five years in the role. Cote and Interpath declined to comment. Cote features in the Premium Club Turnover & Profits Blue Book, the next edition of which will be sent exclusively to Premium Club subscribers on Monday (14 July) and feature 1,138 companies. Cote’s turnover of £147,569,000 for the year ending 24 September 2023 is the 85th highest in the database. 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.

Upward-only rent review ban a ‘significant win’ for hospitality: UKHospitality has called the ban on upward-only rent reviews a “significant win” for the sector. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill includes a commitment to ban upward-only rent review clauses in commercial leases. The previous Labour government committed to implementing a ban in the mid-2000s before the proposal was derailed due to the financial crash. Kate Nicholls, chair of UKHospitality said: “Unjust upward-only rent review clauses have been hitting hospitality businesses for years, making rents unnecessarily expensive. They have been punishing the high street and constraining investment, and it’s the right move for the government to ban them completely. UKHospitality has been calling for a ban for decades and I’m very pleased that it is now being implemented. This ban, alongside business rates reform and efforts to simplify licensing, are critical to cutting costs and red tape for businesses and allow hospitality to drive high street regeneration. It’s also positive that the Bill doesn’t include any future tourist tax in England. The government made clear to us that it has no plans to introduce a tax and it was critical they followed through on that promise. We expect that commitment to remain throughout the passage of this legislation. The government should now take this pragmatic approach at the Budget and introduce measures to lower business rates, fix national insurance contributions and cut VAT for hospitality.”