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 June), at midday. Another 15 companies have been added to the database, which now features 936 companies. This month’s edition will also include 61 updated entries. The companies, listed in alphabetical order, will have their most recent results 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 Multi-Site Database, the New Openings Database, the Turnover & Profits Blue Book, 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 including the Operational Excellence Conference in July 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 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.

Regent Street’s Veeraswamy in court battle over eviction threat: The owner of Veeraswamy has called the Crown Estate “disingenuous” as he gears up for a legal battle with the King’s property company, which is trying to kick out Britain’s oldest Indian restaurant from its Regent Street home of the past 99 years. The Times reports that the Crown Estate wants to take back the building so it can renovate the offices on the upper floors, which have been empty since the end of 2023 after a flood in the basement. Veeraswamy has been able to continue trading because it has a different power supply to the offices. As part of its 12-month renovation plans, the Crown Estate wants to knock down the wall that separates the entrance to Veeraswamy and the entrance to the offices to create a larger reception area for office tenants. Without any access, there is no restaurant. Ranjit Mathrani, the co-owner of MW Eat, which runs Veeraswamy and a handful of other Indian restaurants in London including Chutney Mary, said he had suggested “numerous alternatives” but to no avail. He is open to sharing an entrance with the office tenants or giving back the first floor of the restaurant and keeping just the basement and mezzanine floors. “My dealings with the [Crown Estate] have been characterised by an uncompromising refusal to consider any change to their design plan,” Mathrani said in court filings submitted last week. He had been open to leaving Victory House and the Crown Estate has said it “offered to help find premises elsewhere”. Mathrani, in his submission to the court, said “this assertion is disingenuous” and told The Times: “They’ve made no real attempt to find alternative sites for us.” As it stands, Veeraswamy’s lease expires at the end of this month. However, MW Eat is taking its landlord to court and can continue trading until that hearing, which is likely to be held next spring or early next summer.  Mathrani and his lawyers think they have an “above 50% chance” of winning. If they fail, his hope is that the court will grant Veeraswamy a shorter, two-year lease, which would give him time to find a new venue. “If we lost, that would be our fallback, but moving sites will cost us about £5m, and therefore it is not our preferred option,” Mathrani said.

Safestay awarded £1.4m business interruption insurance claim: Hostel brand Safestay has been awarded a £1.4m business interruption insurance claim. The claim relates to the business interruption experienced by the group during the covid-19 pandemic. Payment of the claim will be received by the group within the next 21 days and will be recognised as a post-balance sheet event in Safestay’s forthcoming 2024 financial results, which the group plans to release later this month. Safestay’s portfolio of 19 premium hostels and one hotel stretches across the UK, Spain, Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia. The group currently offers 3,750 beds across its locations and sold 848,633 bed nights in 2023, a 17% increase against the prior year. Its UK portfolio includes two London hotels, one each in Edinburgh and Glasgow and a Brighton location which is under development. Safestay got the go-ahead to develop a new 170-bed hostel in Brighton in April. The planning approval from the city council followed the group’s acquisition in June 2024 of the freehold property in Pavilion Parade for £2.275m. Set over five storeys, the building spans 15,300 square foot. Safestay will invest approximately £1m in the conversion of the property, with the hostel anticipated to open in early 2026.

Lucky Voice CEO – ‘sober karaoke’ on the rise as Generation Z ditch booze: Young people who shun alcohol are driving a boom in ‘sober karaoke’, putting them at odds with older generations who typically only sing after a few drinks. Charlie Elek, chief executive of Britain’s biggest chain of karaoke bars, Lucky Voice, said he had seen an increase Generation Z eschewing booze during their singing sessions. He also said 8pm was now the most popular time for bookings, compared to 10pm “back in the day”, because of a shift in drinking culture, reports The Telegraph. “Back in the day, we were very much about post-pub activity,” he said. “People would feel the need to have five drinks before coming to Lucky Voice. With Generation Z not drinking the same ways that we used to, that that has changed over time. There’s definitely some people who feel – it’s an older generation – that, ‘well, I’m not going to do karaoke until I have about five pints’. There’s something kind of more guarded about the older generations.” With younger people in particular cutting down on alcohol – and many now going completely teetotal – Elek said the chain was having to cater to a “different type of customer”. He said: “They do come earlier. We have had to work a lot on our low and no [alcohol] menu, and that’s getting really big pick up.” Lucky Voice, which runs five bars in London and one in Brighton, has also begun taking more corporate bookings and hosting more parties for children. The business pulled in its best Christmas on record in 2024, with sales rising 17% compared with the prior year. As well as seeing a rise in sober karaoke, Mr Elek said he had noticed some customers staying out later on Sundays and week nights, because they are working from home and do not have to go into the office the next day. He said: “There’s just a slight different attitude from the days where everyone was working five days a week and you knew that you were going to be at desk at 8:30am.” In April, Lucky Voice reported its business-to-business arm saw a 31% increase in monthly like-for-like revenue over the past 12 months, with enquiries rising by 52% over the same period. The company said this continues an upward trend post-covid, as an increasing number of hospitality businesses look to diversify their offer and “take advantage of the boom in experiential leisure” – with revenue from this side of the business growing by 284% since 2020.