Category Archives: Hospitality industry

Struggling pub landlords given a lifeline by England’s World Cup heroes

Posted on by

One manager expects takings to treble during England’s semi-final with Argentina on Wednesday; while national sales are up 10%

The beleaguered pub sector is getting a boost from England’s World Cup run, with some landlords reporting roaring sales as anticipation builds for a bumper night on Wednesday for the semi-final clash with Argentina.

Lisa Mayall, the manager of the British Oak in Kingswinford near Dudley in the West Midlands, was jubilant after England’s 2-1 win against Norway on Saturday night and brisk takings at the pub’s till. She expects hundreds more customers for the team’s next game at 8pm BST.

Continue reading...

Pull an all-nighter? How parents, schools, fans and police plan to cope with England’s 1am kick-off

Posted on by

Popular national pastimes of drinking and football will make post-Mexico Monday a day of sore heads and sleepy children

England are through to the round of 16 in the World Cup and, as is customary in the run-up to a major international footballing fixture, the country may be losing its mind.

Because piled on top of the 60 years of hurt for the men’s team, England fans have another obstacle to overcome with the forthcoming fixture: a gruelling kick-off time of 1am BST.

Continue reading...

Can Starmer’s late-night World Cup openings help Britain’s struggling pubs?

Posted on by

While venues could stay open until 2am, rising costs remain a far bigger concern for many landlords

Picture the scene: it’s 1am on a sultry July night and Jude Bellingham has just scored the decisive penalty to send England into the World Cup semi-final. Cue wild celebrations among millions of pub goers, fuelled by the realisation that there is still an hour until closing time.

Keir Starmer may have imagined a national morale-boosting spectacle such as this when his government told hospitality venues that they could stay open until 2am on some World Cup match days.

Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan vows to overrule residents’ group’s objections to Soho bars and restaurants

Posted on by

London mayor says Soho Society’s decision to challenge all new licensing applications is ‘bad’ for city

Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, has suggested he will overrule a residents’ society that has vowed to challenge all new applications for pubs and restaurants in Soho.

The Guardian revealed last week that the Soho Society, a residents’ group established in 1972 aimed at “preserving the character of Soho”, voted for a new licensing mandate, meaning it will challenge all new applications for bars and restaurants in the area, including renewals of existing licences.

Continue reading...

Germany’s embattled nightlife scene welcomes plan to reclassify clubs

Posted on by

There is hope that a change to building regulations could resurrect music clubs, which have been hit by rising rents, social shifts and noise disputes

A move by the German government to reclassify nightclubs to distinguish them from amusement and adult entertainment facilities could give a much-needed boost to the country’s struggling nightlife, industry advocates say.

Under a fundamental change to building regulations approved by Friedrich Merz’s cabinet last week, nightclubs will be formally recognised as providing cultural and artistic value, making it more difficult for developers to evict venue operators in favour of new construction.

Continue reading...

Italy’s top court rules against tourist refused tap water in Dolomites hotel

Posted on by

Woman argued water was a ‘universal human right’ but court ruled no law obliged hoteliers to serve it from taps

A tourist’s simple request for a glass of tap water at a hotel restaurant in the Italian Dolomites has culminated in Italy’s top court ruling that being served water from the tap is not consumer right, after a lengthy and costly legal saga.

The case dates back to 2019, when the woman spent a week at the five-star hotel in the ski resort of Corvara, in Badia, over Christmas and New Year. She was on a half-board deal with the evening meal included, except for drinks.

Continue reading...

Reeves’s tax cut on children’s meals a political ‘soundbite’, say restaurateurs

Posted on by

Chancellor’s measure to help families save money during summer holidays ‘won’t make any difference’

Cutting tax on children’s meals is a political “soundbite” that will make little difference to families or businesses, restaurateurs have said.

This week, Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, announced a temporary reduction in VAT on the children’s menu in restaurants from 20% to 5% between June and September, in order to help families with the cost of living crisis and offer a boost to the hospitality sector.

Continue reading...

‘Over the top and fun:’ TGI Fridays boss insists time is right for a UK revival

Posted on by

Ray Blanchette admits he may be a ‘little crazy’ as he outlines chain’s hopes of building 1,000 outlets globally

“I am a little crazy maybe,” admits Ray Blanchette, a former TGI Fridays kitchen manager who has taken on the revival of the bar-restaurant chain’s UK business in the face of blasting industry headwinds.

Blanchette’s family investment firm, Sugarloaf, rescued the Dallas-based parent business from administration in 2025. He then went on to pick up its UK arm in January after the local franchisee got into difficulties, retaining 33 UK restaurants but closing 16, with the loss of 456 jobs.

Continue reading...

Two-thirds of UK hospitality businesses plan to cut jobs and one in seven will close, survey finds

Posted on by

Sector cites ‘billions of pounds in additional costs’ from new business rates and increase in minimum wage thresholds

Two-thirds of hospitality businesses are planning to cut jobs as a result of “suffocating” costs imposed by government, as new business rates and higher wage bills come into force.

Many pubs, restaurants and hotel companies will see their costs increase significantly from 1 April after Rachel Reeves’s changes to business rates and an increase in minimum wage thresholds announced at the chancellor’s November budget.

Continue reading...

Stout clobber? Guinness tie-up features £1,295 ‘pub carpet’ jumper

Posted on by

Brand enlists JW Anderson to help brew up 17-piece range of luxury fashionwear, from ‘beer towel’ shorts to branded trousers and tops

You too can look like a pub carpet – and for the bargain price of £1,295. Such sartorial elegance – perhaps an option for anyone stepping out to celebrate St Patrick’s Day this week – is the aesthetic love-child of a partnership between Guinness and the luxury clothing brand JW Anderson.

The tie-up, launched earlier this month, allows fashionistas to get their hands on a range of Guinness wear that exploits the continuing metamorphosis of the “black stuff” from unfashionable pub staple to social media status symbol.

Continue reading...

Caffè Nero says growth is ‘steady’ but coffee prices are likely to rise

Posted on by

Founder of family-owned firm says it will pause acquisitions after takeover of 15 Compass Coffee stores in US

Caffè Nero will continue opening new shops in the UK and overseas, but has warned coffee prices are likely to keep rising as the war in Iran and higher staffing costs feed through.

The family-owned business, which has just bought the 15-store Compass Coffee based in Washington DC to convert to its main brand, is aiming to open as many as 30 UK stores and between 50 and 70 more this year across the 10 other countries it operates in.

Continue reading...

Politicians seek meeting with Travelodge CEO after Maidenhead sexual assault case

Posted on by

Call for urgent meeting comes after woman was assaulted by man who had been given her key card by hotel staff

More than 20 MPs have demanded an urgent meeting with the CEO of Travelodge after a woman was sexually assaulted by a man who had been given her room number and a key card by hotel staff.

The MPs said the case of Kyran Smith, 29, who was jailed for seven-and-a-half years last month, raised “deeply concerning” questions. He attacked the woman after a party in December 2022.

Continue reading...

Retailers in UK plan to cut staff hours and jobs amid rising employment costs

Posted on by

BRC survey finds finance bosses expect technology to improve productivity, with 69% pessimistic about the economy

UK retailers are planning to cut staff hours and jobs amid rising employment costs and pessimism about the economy.

Almost two-thirds (61%) of finance bosses at retail companies said they planned to reduce working hours or cut overtime, according to the latest survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade body that represents most big retailers. More than half (55%) said they would cut head office jobs and 42% said they would reduce jobs in stores.

Continue reading...

Can you have a community without craic? Scholars of Ireland’s pubs warn of declining numbers

Posted on by

Two new books analyse what makes the ‘perfect pub’ and both come to a sobering conclusion: Irish pubs are in trouble

Like triple-distilled whiskey, Irish pubs appear to have timeless appeal. They are staple setting in films, books and plays, draw tourists to Ireland, replicate themselves around the world and induce social media quests for the perfect snug and the perfect pint.

Scholars have now bestowed academic imprimatur on this cultural treasure status by examining – and celebrating – pubs through the lens of history, sociology, architecture, psychology, design, art and literature.

Continue reading...

Pub chain Mitchells & Butlers faces £130m hit from rising wage and food costs

Posted on by

Group, which also owns restaurant brands including Toby Carvery, feels impact of increase in employer NICs

The All Bar One owner, Mitchells & Butlers, has warned that it is facing about £130m in extra costs over the next year because of a soaring wage bill and rising food prices.

The group, which also owns brands including Toby Carvery, Harvester and Miller & Carter, said the cost increases were largely being driven by April’s increases to the minimum wage and employers’ national insurance contributions.

Continue reading...

Wetherspoon’s to open first pub in Spain – offering garlic prawns and beer from 6am

Posted on by

Opening in Alicante airport is the chain’s first move into mainland Europe, and will offer outdoor drinking

Wetherspoon’s is to open its first pub outside the UK and Ireland, serving alcohol from 6am every day to sun-seeking Britons waiting for their plane in the departure lounge at Alicante airport.

The opening in Spain, scheduled for January, will be the first foray on to continental European soil for the pub chain, which said it expects to pursue more footholds on the continent in the coming years.

Continue reading...

Toby Carvery owner urged to fund ‘life support’ for felled Enfield oak

Posted on by

Sprinklers could save 500-year-old tree that had branches cut off without authorisation in April, says expert

The restaurant chain Toby Carvery is being urged to pay for life support for an ancient oak tree that its owner had chainsawed last spring to widespread public dismay.

Experts say the trunk of the 500-year-old tree, on the edge of a Toby Carvery car park in Whitewebbs Park, Enfield, has shown signs of regrowth, despite its branches being sawn off by the restaurant’s contractors in April.

Continue reading...

Business rates rise would put hundreds of big shops at risk, say UK retailers

Posted on by

Concern for ‘anchor tenants’ as trade body warns that stores could put up prices or cut jobs to protect profits

Up to 400 large shops are at risk of closure with as many as 100,000 jobs at risk if the government goes ahead with plans to hit stores with higher business rates, retailers have warned.

Some of the UK’s largest retail premises, including supermarkets and department stores, would face higher property tax charges under new rules being considered by the government before November’s budget.

Continue reading...

One in four UK late-night venues have closed since 2020, figures show

Posted on by

Industry body calls for urgent tax cuts to save ‘cornerstones of community life’ and halt rise of ‘night-time deserts’

More than one in four late-night venues have shut their doors since 2020, figures show, prompting lobbyists to warn that the UK faces a worrying rise in “night-time deserts” without urgent tax cuts.

Nearly 800 late-night businesses have been forced to close over the past five years, according to the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), representing a 26.4% contraction in the late-night sector overall. That compares with a 14.2% contraction across the wider hospitality sector.

Continue reading...

‘We’re publicans’: County Limerick community forms syndicate to save village’s last pub

Posted on by

Group in Kilteely pooled savings to buy bar and licence and ‘everybody brought something to the table’

A century ago, the County Limerick village of Kilteely had seven pubs but one by one they shut. This year, it braced to lose the last.

The economic and social trends that have shuttered family-run pubs across Ireland appear remorseless, leaving many communities with nowhere to meet, have a drink and share stories.

Continue reading...