MCR Hotels to lead new equity investors in members’ club chain after four years on New York stock exchange
The members’ club chain Soho House has agreed a $2.7bn (£2bn) deal to take it private after a tricky four years listed on the New York stock exchange.
New York-based MCR Hotels will lead new equity investors in the chain of clubs as part of a deal that will involve it ditching its stock market listing.
Continue reading...Fast-food chain’s plan on back of booming fried chicken market includes opening 500 new restaurants
KFC is to invest almost £1.5bn and create thousands of jobs in the UK and Ireland over the next five years, as the fast-food chain seeks to capitalise on the booming popularity of fried chicken.
The chain, which is celebrating its 60th year of operations in the UK, said it plans to invest £1.49bn to grow and upgrade its existing 1,000-outlet estate.
Continue reading...Shares rise on promises to return £2bn to investors through buybacks and dividends, and more hotel openings
Profits at the Premier Inn owner Whitbread have fallen after it was hit by higher costs and a drop in UK bookings, but shares rose on the promise of a share buyback and more hotel openings.
Britain’s largest hotel group, which owns 852 hotels in the UK and 61 in Germany, reported a 14% fall in adjusted pre-tax profit to £483m for the year to 27 February. Revenues dipped by 1% to £2.9bn, as revenue per available room in the UK was down by 2%.
Continue reading...Venues to remain open until 1am as PM urges UK to come together to mark 80th anniversary on 8 May
Pubs will be allowed to stay open until 1am to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, the UK prime minister has announced.
The government will allow pubs in England and Wales to close at 1am on 9 May to allow drinkers to continue celebrating into the early hours.
Continue reading...Growth in international hotels coincides with government effort to push region as a tourism destination
Almost 200 international hotels are operating or planning to open in Xinjiang, despite calls from human rights groups for global corporations not to help “sanitise” the Chinese government’s human rights abuses in the region, a report has said.
The report by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) identified 115 operational hotels which the organisation said “benefit from a presence in the Uyghur region”. At least another 74 were in various stages of construction or planning, the report said. The UHRP said some of the hotels also had exposure or links of concern to forced labour and labour transfer programmes.
Continue reading...UK bakery chain says it will offer free soya with coffee or tea from 21 May but will still charge for oat milk
The bakery chain Gail’s is to drop its soya milk surcharge after a campaign by a leading animal rights charity argued the fee “unfairly discriminated” against customers.
Gail’s will offer free soya from 21 May, but will continue to charge between 40p and 60p if costumers want oat in their coffee or tea.
Continue reading...Özgür Özel expanded call to boycott companies perceived as close to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Turkey’s anti-government protesters are weighing their options, amid calls by the main opposition leader for weekly rallies, a growing economic boycott and a groundswell of fired-up student demonstrators determined to stay on the streets.
The leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), Özgür Özel, expanded a call to boycott goods and services from companies perceived as close to the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during a rally in support of the jailed Istanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu.
Continue reading...Firms who wine and dine officials may gain a seat at the policymaking table while the third sector is squeezed out
Ministers from Keir Starmer downwards have sometimes seemed perplexed about what they see as the fuss made over their acceptance of hospitality in the last nine months.
From their point of view, free tickets to concerts and sporting events are a paltry form of compensation for the disruption to their private lives that comes from being a frontline politician.
Continue reading...By Ramsay’s own estimate, he has lost more than £2,000 during one week in stolen maneki-neko cat models
Nearly 500 cat figurines were stolen in one week from Gordon Ramsay’s new London restaurant, the TV chef has said.
The restaurateur, 58, recently launched Lucky Cat 22 Bishopsgate by Gordon Ramsay in one of London’s tallest buildings, which features the beckoning Japanese cat models called maneki-neko.
Continue reading...Fire broke out on Valentine’s Day, partially destroying London venue that had been due to host Bafta party
A fire that tore through a luxury London hotel popular with celebrities was caused by wood falling from a pizza oven.
The Chiltern Firehouse, which had been due to host a post-Bafta film awards party on Sunday evening, was partially destroyed by the fire on Friday
Continue reading...Firefighters from across the capital sent to popular venue
The popular celebrity venue Chiltern Firehouse in London will remain closed until further notice after a fire forced about 100 people to evacuate on Friday lunchtime.
The London fire brigade (LFB) said 125 firefighters and 20 fire engines attended the blaze at the restaurant and luxury hotel on Chiltern Street in Marylebone after a 999 call was made at 2.52pm.
Continue reading...A £750 mai tai previously earned the city centre bar the title of world’s most expensive cocktail
Spending a grand on an unforgettable experience might not feel extreme for people keen to shake up their routines. But what if it doesn’t involve falling through the skies, or even going outside at all?
“A life-changing experience” is the promise of one Belfast hotel’s £1,000-pound cocktail, launched as part of a new drinks menu.
Continue reading...The networking and events business struggled with ‘rising rents’ and the aftermath of the pandemic
AllBright, the women-only members’ club with a five-storey townhouse in Mayfair, London, has entered administration, the Guardian can reveal.
The networking and events business – which was co-founded by the Telegraph Media Group’s chief executive, Anna Jones, and the co-chair of the Invest in Women Taskforce, Debbie Wosskow – emailed members last week to say it was closing the doors of its building just off Regent Street.
Continue reading...Industry body says businesses and jobs at risk unless Rachel Reeves’s tax changes delayed or altered
The hospitality industry will incur an extra £1bn of costs for 774,000 of its workers who will be newly eligible for employer national insurance contributions from April, endangering jobs and businesses, a leading industry body has claimed.
UKHospitality, which represents thousands of restaurants, hotels, pubs, cafes and nightclubs, is calling on the government to delay or alter changes to the tax announced in Rachel Reeves’s October’s budget in order to protect jobs.
Continue reading...Under draft law, online reviewers would have to provide ID and proof that they visited the place in question
The Italian government is seeking to clamp down on fake and paid-for online reviews in an effort to protect the country’s hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions from misleading and damaging content.
Under a draft law announced this week, which still needs to be approved in parliament, anyone wanting to write an online review would be required to provide verifiable ID and proof that they visited the place in question.
Continue reading...But the Sydney hospitality giant, which operates more than 90 bars, restaurants and hotels, didn’t admit any liability in relation to the claims
Sydney pub baron Justin Hemmes’ company has agreed to pay millions to ex-employees who alleged they were underpaid, but did not admit any liability in relation to the claims.
Merivale has agreed to pay $19.25m to settle the lawsuit which was approved in the federal court on Friday, after five years of legal arguments and closed-door negotiations.
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Continue reading...London-listed company strikes deal with Fortress Investment Group, although shareholder approval needed
The cafe bar business Loungers has agreed to be bought by a US investment group in a deal that values it at about £338m.
Fortress Investment Group said it had made an offer for the UK hospitality group through a newly formed investment vehicle.
Continue reading...Tim Martin blamed increases to the minimum wage and employers’ national insurance contributions
Pubgoers should expect prices to go up as a result of Labour’s first budget in 14 years, the politically outspoken boss of Wetherspoon’s, Tim Martin, has said.
Speaking as the hospitality chain announced record quarterly sales, Martin pinned the blame for an expected increase in pubs’ costs on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, whose economic “pedigree” he has previously praised.
Continue reading...Diners hail ‘great price’ of dishes at Swedish furniture chain’s food outlet next door to its Hammersmith store
Its meatballs are as famous as its flatpack furniture, with a meal in one of its restaurants often the highlight of an Ikea trip.
Now shoppers can enjoy an Ikea meal without lugging around their kitchen sink – literally – as the furniture company has opened its first standalone restaurant on the UK high street in King Street in Hammersmith. Located next door to its west London city store, the space seats 75 people and serves a range of Swedish dishes.
Continue reading...Rise in VAT, inflation and people working from home has led small business owners to demand government support
Blazing Salads, Dillingers, Assassination Custard and Brasserie Sixty Six in Dublin, Church Lane and Sage in County Cork, and Barnacles in Galway.
These are just some of the most recent additions to the list of more than 600 restaurants that have been forced to close in Ireland in the last year in what is being seen as a growing crisis for the country’s high street and tourist offering.
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