Premium Club subscribers to receive next Who’s Who of UK Hospitality on Friday: The next Who’s Who of UK Hospitality will be released to Premium Club subscribers on Friday (20 February), at midday. Another 54 companies have been added to the database, which now features 1,434 companies. This month’s edition will also include 177 updated entries. The companies, listed in alphabetical order, will have their most recent developments reported as well as broader information around Ebitda, plans and trading style available. The database merges Companies House information, interviews and other public information to provide an easy to reference and exhaustive guide to the sector. Premium Club subscribers also receive access to five other databases: the Turnover & Profits Blue Book, the Multi-Site Database, the New Openings Database, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database and the UK Food and Beverage Franchisee Database. All Premium Club subscribers will be offered a 20% discount on tickets to Propel paid-for events and discounts on specialist sector reports. Operators that are Premium Club subscribers are also able to send up to four members of staff to each of our four Multi-Club Conferences for free. Premium Club subscribers 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 subscribers also receive exclusive opinion columns every Friday at 5pm, which include the thoughts of Propel chief operating officer – editorial, 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.

Flight Club operator reports 10% increase in sales: Red Engine, the hospitality group behind Flight Club and Electric Shuffle, has said that a rise in demand for experience-led night outs has boosted its quarterly sales. The Times reports that sales at Red Engine rose 10% to £27.7m in its final three months after a record December, with 22 of its 24 venues achieving their highest weekly sales that month. The company also recorded its largest single day of sales of £775,000. The company has grown rapidly since it opened its first site in Shoreditch, east London, in 2015 and it now has venues across the UK, as well as the US and Australia with franchise partners. Total system sales, comprising both franchise and company-owned venues, rose to £46.4m in the final quarter, a year-on-year increase of 25%. Ross Shepley-Smith, the chief financial officer at Red Engine, said: “Last year was a particularly proud moment for all of us, but finishing off a milestone year with results like these really is the icing on the cake.” As well as further UK openings this year, including a venue in Reading in May, the company said it would continue to expand overseas with bars in Seattle, New York, Dallas and Newtown, a suburb of Sydney. Steve Moore, Red Engine’s co-founder and its chief executive, said: “As always, we continue scouting for unique spaces that fit our vibe in locations where we know we’d bring something special to the nightlife scene. Cities such as Brighton, Cambridge and Bath, among many others, all tick the box as places we’d love to eventually call home.”

Workers’ rights reforms push a third of employers to cut hiring: More than a third of employers are set to cut back on hiring because of the government’s workers’ rights reforms, a survey of employers has found. Businesses warned that new rules giving enhanced protections to workers will place a “further handbrake on job creation” after they were hit by an increase to national insurance last April. The Times reports that the survey, by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), found that 37% of 2,000 firms polled planned to reduce the recruitment of permanent staff as a result of the changes. It also found that more than half of businesses expected an increase in workplace conflict. The new measures for workers introduced by ministers this year include a day one right to statutory sick pay, new rights to ease trade union recognition and a shorter qualification period for unfair dismissal. Government economists have estimated that the Employment Rights Act, spearheaded by Angela Rayner before she resigned over her tax affairs last year, will cost businesses about £1 billion a year. Yet the CIPD, the UK trade body for human resources departments, said that the analysis did “not fully account” for the amount of time HR teams would spend on implementing the changes. Ben Willmott, head of public policy at the institute, said there was a risk that the new measures would “act as a further handbrake on job creation and recruitment” on top of the £24bn increase to employers’ national insurance contributions introduced last year. He said: “It’s important the government acts to try and mitigate these potential negative consequences, including through meaningful consultation and where necessary compromise on key measures still to be decided.”

Jeremy King – I’m fed up with influencers overrunning my restaurant: Restaurateur Jeremy King has said that as “the phenomenon of the ‘influencer’ grows”, clashes are escalating between the “TikTok set and restaurant staff who are desperately trying to stop them ruining the experience of bona fide guests”. Writing in the Standard, King said: “I was actually happy when the smartphone arrived because the quality of the camera allowed memories to be recorded without affecting others – although we remained vigilant for breaches of policy. It was a halcyon period. I think we all wish to influence, or be influenced, in one way or another – it is largely the human condition – but sadly it is so often the case that when anything is monetised, the ugly aspects will soon be revealed. My most recent restaurant, The Park, opened in the summer of 2024 in Bayswater and it has developed a very dedicated following from local regulars and further afield. Recognition began to increase but then we started to notice a proliferation of guests coming in with what appeared to be the sole purpose of taking and posting fashion photographs, using the restaurant as a background. We started to find customers arriving with suitcases and tripods then ordering very little, often leaving the table as the food arrived and being absent for long periods. We would often be cajoling women out of the loos to eat their meal and when they eventually returned to the table, they would complain that the food was cold and refuse to pay for it. Tipped off by a customer we once found ten women – influencers with entourage –blocking access to the loos, while using them as changing rooms with their own sound system. Enough was enough. Those signs went up; the website amended; security employed; and it was made clear that this type of filming was unacceptable. Of course, the perpetrators wanted retribution. In the course of one weekend we had 12 damning one-star reviews from thwarted influencers, often accompanied by staff photos and a plethora of false accusations. These were taken down by Google – but damaging enough and where does that leave us? I don’t want to go down the route of insisting that guests have stickers placed on their camera lens as at other places, or even banning phones all together, or indeed banning influencers. But I will insist that rules are adhered to and the restaurant, staff and customers fully respected.” Jeremy King will be among the speakers at the first Propel Multi-Club Conference of 2026, which is open for bookings. Over the past 45 years, King has changed the way London eats, creating some of the city’s most iconic dining rooms and restoring others to their former glory. King, who has been described as the greatest living London restaurateur, talks to Propel chief operating officer – editorial, Mark Wingett, about how his return to the sector has gone, what has been different this time and where he sees the restaurant market in the capital going. The conference takes place on Wednesday, 25 March, at the Park Plaza, Victoria. For the full speaker schedule, click here. Operators can book up to three free places per company while Premium subscribers who are operators can book up to four free places. To book, email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com.