Piano Works founder Alan Lorrimer leaves business: Alan Lorrimer, founder of The Piano Works, has left the business after starting it nine years ago with operations director Tristan Moffat. Chief financial officer and founding shareholder Peter Thornton is also leaving. Nightcap, which acquired the audience-requested live music venues in London earlier this year, has decided to fully integrate The Piano Works’ head office functions into its existing support team, which runs its 44-venue portfolio. Lorrimer said: “Over the past nine years, Tristan and I, along with our excellent Piano Works teams, have created two iconic music venues and a concept that has been loved by millions of guests who have sung along with us and will continue to sing into the future. It has been an honour and a privilege to have met and worked with so many creative, talented, and passionate individuals. We want to say a heartfelt thanks to our teams for all their unwavering dedication, hard work, support, and belief. Tristan and I are sad to be leaving The Piano Works, but we leave it in good hands.” Staff at the two venues in Farringdon and Covent Garden will continue in their roles. Serial restaurateur Lorrimer has created 14 concepts, including The Caviar Bar, Porters, Bar Sol, Tiger Lil’s, Guanabara, and Charlotte St Blues. He was also instrumental in supporting the sector during the covid pandemic. In 2020, he and Moffat launched the grand summer outdoor café initiative, encouraging the government to give the green light to hospitality operators looking to place tables outside. Subsequently, the government allowed local authorities to relax outdoor seating regulations. The following year, along with David Abrahamson, co-founder of Cedar Dean Commercial, and Thornton, he set up the campaign to persuade the government to adopt the successful Australian rent relief scheme. Subsequently, the government announced it would bring in mandated arbitration between landlords and tenants. A new report has been produced by Propel on the fast-growing experiential leisure sector. The report profiles the current shape of the experiential leisure market – including brands, estate size, trading type and geographical location and future trends. It provides a detailed list of UK experiential leisure companies including key staff and Companies House information. The report includes more than 180 companies, 3,500 sites and a 35,000-word report. The report is available to Premium Club members. 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.

Cinnamon Collection turn a loss but achieving good team retention and looking to expand ‘at a sustainable rate’: Cinnamon Collection, which operates five restaurants in London and one in Dubai and is owned by Boparan Restaurant Group (BRG), turned a loss in the year to 31 December 2023 but said it is achieving good team retention and looking to expand “at a sustainable rate”. The company’s pre-tax profit of £38,000 in 2022 turned into a loss of £58,000 off turnover of £12,372,000, compared with £11,359,000 in 2022. Of this, £12,364,000 came from the UK (2022: £11,527,000) and £8,000 from the rest of the world (2022: £12,000). The 2022 figures included £53,000 in VAT reclaim (2023: nil) and £33,000 in government grants (2023: nil). Ebitda was down from £0.8m in 2022 to £0.6m. “Cinnamon Collection’s in-house training programmes continue to train apprentices, chefs and managers for the business and create opportunities for growth,” said BRG chief executive Satnam Leihal. “In spite of a challenging labour market, Cinnamon Collection continues to achieve good team retention. Cinnamon Collection will look to expand at a sustainable rate, with restaurants suitable for the environment continuing in its ethos of evolution, innovation and creativity.”