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Thu 3rd Apr 2025 - Update: Osmond ups Various Eateries stake, Boujis founders open new club, US tariffs, household income |
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Hugh Osmond ups stake in Various Eateries: Serial sector investor Hugh Osmond has upped his stake in Various Eateries, the Coppa Club and Noci concept operator. Xercise2 Limited – a company owned and controlled by Osmond – has purchased 1,000,000 ordinary shares of 1p each in Various Eateries at a price of 10.75p per share. Following this transaction Xercise2’s beneficial holding is now 40,436,256 ordinary shares representing approximately 23.10% of the total issued share capital and voting rights in the company. The resultant aggregate interest of Osmond and members of his Concert Party in the ordinary shares in the capital of Various Eateries is 111,739,152 ordinary shares, representing 63.8% of the enlarged share capital. In February, Various Eateries told Propel that although it has been a tough few years for UK hospitality “there’s a sense that some of the well-publicised inflationary pressures are easing and things are beginning to stabilise”. It came after the company reported it had a “solid” start to its new financial year and said the group is “steadily regaining momentum”. Premium Club subscribers to receive new searchable and segmented New Openings Database tomorrow: The next Propel New Openings Database will be sent to Premium Club subscribers tomorrow (Friday, 4 April), at noon. The database will show the details of 187 site openings, including which company has opened a site or its plans to open one in the future. The database will have details on what type of site it is and its location, and there will also be a website link to the businesses. The database is published on a monthly basis and Premium Club subscribers will also receive a 11,039-word report on the 187 new additions to the database. The database is segmented into seven categories – cafe bakery, casual dining, experiential leisure, fine dining, hotels, pubs and bars, and quick service restaurants – making it even easier for users to search. The database includes new openings in the experiential leisure sector such as Flukes, the gaming hall opening in London’s Walthamstow, immersive retro arcade bar concept NQ64 with a new site in Nottingham, and Flip Out, the trampolining brand from We Do Play, launching its debut Welsh site. Premium Club subscribers also receive access to five other databases: the Turnover & Profits Blue Book, the Multi-Site 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 Club subscribers will be offered a 20% discount on tickets to Propel paid-for events including Excellence in Pub Retail (May 2025) and discounts on specialist sector reports such as the International Brands report. 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 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 subscribers 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.
Boujis founders open new club Gallery: The founders of the Boujis nightclub are hoping to revive the old west London clubbing scene with Gallery, a multi-room nightclub and cocktail bar close to London’s Kensington Palace, which opened last week. The four-man hospitality team of Carlo Carello, Jake Parkinson-Smith, Barth Rougier and Steve Manktelow, also the brains behind B Club, Albert’s and Mahiki, told The Times they have thrown a little bit of everything at consumers, the idea being that their well-heeled patrons need never leave the building on their night out. The 400-capacity venue has four rooms to choose from: a lively Cuban cocktail bar; a concrete Berlinstyle club with a Boiler Room inspired 360-degree DJ booth; a secluded members’ room decked in zebra-skin carpets and Colefax and Fowler fabrics; and a hidden pizzeria serving up Neapolitan slices until the early hours. Carello says there are surprises concealed in every corner of the Gallery: “We’ve got the world’s smallest tequila bar hidden in the bathrooms, which will serve 80 different types of the spirit.” With DJs such as Bob Sinclair and Pete Tong already slated to take to the decks in the club’s first season, music is a big part of Gallery’s ambition. “We had some of the world’s most legendary DJs on site testing the speakers and giving us feedback on the sound experience,” Rougier said. “Everything we’re doing with Gallery is almost what Steve Jobs did with the iPhone. We’re perfectionists. A lot of hospitality entrepreneurs were a little bit lazy with their approach and just created regular one-dimensional rooms. London has so much competition, so much on offer, but we like the challenge of seeing how far we can take true hospitality.” Membership packages start at £300 a year for those aged 21 to 30, while a lifetime membership is £2,500. Carello, who is Italian but grew up in South Kensington, believes Britons have a good deal to learn from his home country when it comes to great service. “In Italy you go to a restaurant and they might send you a limoncello at the end of your meal,” he said. “That doesn’t happen in the UK.”
Bill rises and tax measures leave families £400 poorer: The average working household is set to be £400 worse off this year because of a freeze on the income tax threshold, higher national insurance on employers, a cocktail of utility bill increases and benefits rising by less than inflation, despite the chancellor’s optimism. The Times reports that the Resolution Foundation think tank estimates that the 2025-26 tax year will herald the start of a five-year period in which the disposable incomes of the poorest half of the workforce will fall 3% in real terms, about £500 per household. In a report released today, Happy New Tax Year, the left-leaning think tank describes the outlook for living standards as “historically bleak”. While the Labour government was elected on a pledge not to raise income tax, employee national insurance or VAT, it increased the rate of employer national insurance from 13.8 to 15% and kept the thresholds at which people start to pay basic and higher rates of income tax. The think tank is the latest to estimate the effect that the tax rise on employers will have on workers, arguing that it will lead to slower wage growth in future as employers recoup their costs. It estimates that the increase in employer national insurance and the freeze in income tax thresholds, which have stayed at the same level since April 2021, will cost a typical household earning £32,000 a year £170 in 2025-26. Households also face rising bills, with most local authorities in England increasing council tax bills by the maximum 5% allowed; those in Wales increasing them by 7%; and those in Scotland by 9%. The rise will cost the average household £80 a year, the think tank says. Average water bills are set to rise £123 a year, while the quarterly energy price cap set by the regulator, Ofgem, is to go up by £111 for the average dual-fuel household paying their bills by direct debit to £1,849 a year, 6% higher than the period between January and March. Altogether, the think tank estimates that the average household will be left about £400 worse off. Adam Corlett, from the Resolution Foundation, said: “The new tax year has arrived, and brings with it higher taxes, even larger bill increases, and benefits that aren’t keeping pace with the rising cost of living.”
Major US restaurant chains warn about disruption and higher pricing from tariffs: The National Restaurant Association (NRA) has warned about the impact of new tariffs on the US restaurant industry. NRA chief executive Michelle Korsmo said applying new tariffs at the new scale will create change and disruption that restaurant operators will have to navigate to keep their restaurants open. She said: “The biggest concerns for restaurant operators – from community restaurants to national brands – are that tariffs will hike food and packaging costs and add uncertainty to managing availability, while pushing prices up for consumers.” Korsmo also noted that restaurant operators rely on a stable supply of fresh ingredients year-round to provide the menu items their customers want and expect. “Many restaurant operators source as many domestic ingredients as they can, but it’s simply not possible for US farmers and ranchers to produce the volumes needed to support consumer demand,” she said. The NRA said it will continue to share with the White House the real-life challenges these changes present for restaurant operators and ask to have food and beverages exempted from these tariffs. McDonald’s, Yum! Brands, Darden Restaurants, Chipotle, and Cheesecake Factory are just a few of the companies that are members of the industry association.
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