Category Archives: Hospitality industry

Visitors trapped in Shanghai’s Disney resort after lockdown announced

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Videos appear to show guests rushing to locked gates as strict Covid restrictions return across China

Visitors to Shanghai’s Disney resort were trapped inside for the second time in 12 months after authorities and operators announced a sudden lockdown as part of China’s strict pandemic response.

In a repeat of scenes from across Covid-zero China, viral videos on Monday appeared to show guests rushing to the locked gates of the theme park in an attempt to escape the lockdown. It followed extraordinary scenes on the weekend, with a mass escape of employees from a locked-down Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, to walk up to hundreds of kilometres to their hometowns.

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More than a third of UK hospitality firms ‘could go bust by next year’

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Pubs, restaurants and hotels threatened by energy bills and food price inflation, survey finds

More than a third of UK hospitality businesses, including pubs, restaurants and hotels, could go bust by early next year as energy bills surge and bookings fall, according to a new survey.

With nearly all businesses saying they face higher energy costs and food price inflation, 35% of respondents to a quarterly hospitality industry survey said they expected to be operating at a loss or to be unable to continue trading by the end of the year.

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Salt Bae’s London restaurant reports £7m in sales in its first three months

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Nusret Gökçe’s ‘ludicrous’ Nusr-Et Steakhouse charges more than £600 for a tomahawk steak

The London restaurant of Salt Bae, a flamboyant, condiment-sprinkling chef, has reported £7m in sales in its first three months.

Nusr-Et Steakhouse, the outlet at the Park Tower hotel in Knightsbridge known for outrageously priced items such as tomahawk steaks wrapped in gold, also made pre-tax profits of £2.3m in the year to December having only opened its doors in late September, according to accounts filed at Companies House first reported by The National.

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Two-thirds of UK’s top restaurants in the red after Brexit, Covid and inflation

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Meanwhile £700m of support funds in business rates relief remains unpaid by local councils

Debt repayments, staff shortages and rising energy bills have pushed almost two-thirds of the UK’s top 100 restaurants into the red, according to research that reveals the impact of the pandemic, Brexit and the cost of living crisis on the hospitality sector.

With a recession looming and further increases in energy bills weighing on businesses, a separate report found that £700m of business rates relief remains unpaid with only half of English councils paying out the support funds.

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Network Rail in last-ditch bid to stop train strike causing chaos across UK

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RMT union leaders say ‘no viable’ deals are on the table and walkout is set to go ahead, hitting tourism, sport and festivals

Network Rail bosses say they plan to hold more talks with union leaders today in a last-ditch attempt to avert the biggest strike on the railways for more than three decades.

More than 40,000 rail workers are due to walk out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Only about half of Britain’s rail network will be open on strike days with a very limited service on lines which are open.

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UK pub chains warn of price rises due to increase in food and fuel costs

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Marston’s phases out ‘two-for-one’ meal offer while Mitchells & Butlers increases prices to cope with rising costs of utilities, wages and food

Two of Britain’s largest pub groups have warned that punters may have to pay more for a meal and see fewer discounts on the menu as they struggle to absorb rising energy and food costs.

The pub and restaurant group Mitchells & Butlers, which runs pub chains including O’Neill’s and restaurant brands such as Harvester, said it was facing a difficult trading environment. Its rival Marston’s said it was working to mitigate inflationary rises through a combination of cost-cutting and “pricing strategies”.

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As Britain learns to live with Covid, it faces a new pandemic of disruption

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Staff shortages, delays and rising prices are playing havoc with the healthcare, education, farming, hospitality and travel sectors

Although the UK no longer faces the threat of lockdowns or intensive care units being imminently overrun, coronavirus is still disrupting much of society and the economy.

As Britain learns to live with Covid, the virus is still playing havoc with our daily lives, and these difficulties have been compounded by post-Brexit chaos in some in sectors.

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Pizza Express waiting staff win back bigger slice of tips

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Workers took action after share of tips paid on credit and debit cards was cut from 70% to 50% in 2021

Pizza Express waiting staff have won back a bigger slice of their tips after a year-long campaign against a change that handed more to kitchen staff.

The restaurant workers were forced to take action after their share of tips and service charges paid on credit and debit cards was cut from 70% to 50% last year at a time when pay was already under pressure from social-distancing measures that limited the number of diners.

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‘Sticking-plaster measures’: Sunak fails to ease pain of surging costs, say firms

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Hospitality, manufacturing and haulage sectors say spring statement falls far short of the help needed

The spring statement did not deliver much to help Lesters, a small but growing packaging company struggling with rising costs.

The Staffordshire-based firm’s energy bills will rise from £7,000 a month to £18,000 when the current contract runs out. Speaking after Rishi Sunak’s spring statement, Lesters’ managing director, Billy Hutchinson, said the chancellor had offered nothing to help on this key issue.

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‘Just not the right time’: Victoria urged to keep mask rules for key workers

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Epidemiologists say calls by business to relax mask rules as case numbers escalate is ‘down the rabbit hole thinking’

Victorian business leaders pushing to scrap mask mandates for hospitality and retail workers are “clearly not following the trend” in rising cases, according to epidemiologists who say now is not the time to relax rules.

The state’s premier, Daniel Andrews, on Thursday rejected a push from the Australian Hotels Association, the Australian ­Retailers Association and the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry who told the Herald Sun they wanted national consistency on mask mandates and warned workers could leave the sectors for other jobs.

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New York City’s restaurant industry grapples with easing vaccine rules

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Many welcome the change as a ‘return to normalcy’ that will support restaurants and bars, but others worry it’s too soon

Tyler Hollinger, owner of Festivál Cafe, a “farm-to-bar cocktail cafe” in New York City, said he recently started learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu because of physical altercations with visitors who are unvaccinated against Covid-19.

The reason for the fights isn’t that Hollinger is a crusader for the city’s requirement that people show proof of vaccination to sit inside at bars and restaurants.

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What are Covid rules in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland?

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Announcement that there will be no new restrictions in England before new year puts it at odds with rest of UK

Ministers have confirmed that no new Covid-19 restrictions will be imposed in England before the new year.

Sajid Javid, the health secretary, told reporters there will be “no further measures before the new year”, adding: “Of course people should remain cautious as we approach new year celebrations and take a lateral flow test if that makes sense, celebrate outdoors if you can, have some ventilation indoors if you can.”

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Joe & the Juice bids for growth despite the Covid squeeze

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The Nordic cafe chain is planning ambitious expansion in the UK and perhaps an IPO – if it can find the staff

Founded by a Danish karate champion, the smoothie chain Joe & the Juice has blitzed its way on to British high streets, where its pastel-pink outlets and drinks with names such as Sex Me Up have cut a distinctive dash.

Having grown from one juice bar in Copenhagen in 2002 to 300 outlets around the world, the chain is planning to double in size in the next few years, and is rumoured to be plotting a stock market listing.

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‘I don’t blame customers for getting annoyed’: a coffee house owner on life without EU workers

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Anas Zein Al-Abdeen owns a chain of four Middle Eastern coffee houses around Birmingham. But, the 40-year-old says, while customers are plentiful, staff are another matter

Anas Zein Al-Abdeen doesn’t want to close his business for three days a week – but, increasingly, it looks like his only option. He simply can’t get the staff. “It’s horrific,” he says. “We can’t plan for anything.”

The 40-year-old British-Syrian businessman runs Damascena, an independent chain of four Middle Eastern coffee houses in and around Birmingham. All of his cafes are affected, but the one in central Birmingham is the most short-staffed, with 25 workers instead of the usual 30. “It’s very stressful,” he says. “Most businesses worry about getting customers. But I’m just worried if we can serve them or not.”

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Nurses and shop staff in UK face tide of abuse since end of lockdowns

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Customer-facing workers in all sectors report greater hostility, research shows

People in public-facing jobs are facing rising hostility and verbal abuse since the end of the Covid lockdowns, according to organisations which represent them. Half of all shop, transport, restaurant and hotel workers and others dealing regularly with the public have experienced abuse in the past six months, figures from the Institute for Customer Service (ICS) show. This is a 6% rise over May’s 44%. Of those who had been abused, 27% had been physically attacked, it found.

The research comes as trades unions and industry bodies warn of growing public hostility towards workers since Covid’s second wave.

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Clubs face bouncer shortage as UK staffing squeeze hits nightlife

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Trade body says one in five businesses had to close or cut hours last month for lack of security staff

Nightclubs are suffering from a growing shortage of bouncers, in the latest staffing squeeze to hit the UK’s economic recovery, with some estimates suggesting venues are having to pay security staff as much as 25% more.

The lack of security personnel comes at a time when hospitality businesses are being hit by a cocktail of rising costs and are trying to rebound from months of closures during the pandemic.

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No Covid pass, no entry: Cardiff clubbers divided on new Welsh rules

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As mandatory checks began, not everyone in the queue for the Pryzm club was prepared

There was an extra thing for the hundreds of young people waiting in the queue outside Pryzm nightclub in Cardiff to worry about.

As usual, they needed to show ID, undergo a search and make sure they still had their phone, keys and friends with them – but for the first time they also had to produce a Covid pass, showing they were fully vaccinated or had tested negative.

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Under the table: Australia’s dazzlingly diverse home cooking underground

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Social media and online marketplaces have facilitated a boom in Australian home cooking businesses – but many operate without regulation

During the Sydney lockdown I ordered from a different home cook every Friday night, for me and my neighbours. I discovered each cook from community groups or social media pages for migrant communities in Sydney – east African, Thai, English.

Sometimes the home cooks had a professional social media presence, a delivery provider, or even a website to order from; but often my lead was just a person’s name – I’d then have to find and befriend them on Facebook before asking about a food delivery for the following Friday. Some had menus, others just asked “what do you want?” and let me pick from the full range of their specialty cuisine.

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The end of furlough will lay bare Britain’s twin-speed recovery from Covid

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Workers in depressed sectors or regions won’t be able to plug gaps in areas that have been quicker to recover, ministers are being warned

There are signs outside almost every pub, restaurant and hotel dotting Torquay’s harbour: Staff wanted.

“It’s been packed solid busy, you can’t get a table anywhere,” said Brett Powis, owner of three hotels in the area including the Riviera and Lincombe Hall. For the hotelier, staff shortages made it harder to take full advantage of the busiest summertime boom in the Devon resort for decades.

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Scotland proposes Covid vaccine certificates for nightclub entry

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Nicola Sturgeon says certificates in limited scenarios could protect public health and boost vaccine take-up

The Scottish government is proposing vaccine certificates for entry to nightclubs and large-scale indoor and outdoor events in an attempt to curb escalating Covid infections before the autumn.

Announcing the plans, which MSPs will be asked to vote on next week, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said that – although expected with schools returning last month – “the scale of the increase [in infections] in recent weeks has been very concerning”.

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