News

NEWS British Pub Week 2010 has been launched. Previously known as National Pub Week, the event will take place between the 30th October and 6th November 2010.The week aims to promote and celebrate all that is good about the Great British Pub. Figures released by the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) reveals that the market is showing small signs of recovery. Its Quarterly Beer Barometer shows that while sales are still declining, the rate of fall has dropped. For the last three months of 2009 sales were down 3.6 per cent - the lowest fourth quarter fall since 2006. The Publican Marco Pierre White opened his second pub last week. The Swan Inn, in Aughton, Lancashire, is the first venue to open under the partnership of White and Sanguine Hospitality. morningadvertiser.co.uk Jamie Oliver is expanding his high street restaurant chain, Jamie's Italian, with four new sites set to open in as many months. caterersearch.com ...
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Cafe Zero

On a bustling Saturday in London I felt like many people at 5:30pm that a coffee was most definately in order! With London being not exactly under resourced in this department I attempted to show some brand loyalty and having walked past a few of the usual suspects stopped at Cafe Nero. It was sadly at this point the dream of the brand promise disappered in the world of reality. A long queue, not because the its the best coffee in town, but due to the fact their was a single person serving with a t-shirt that proudly annouced to the world that she was a trainee. Trying to be patient, one girl on her own I tried to understand. She was then reunited with her partner in crime who had been collecting cups - quite a feat as she returned with 2 and had been gone for at least 10 minutes. Finally at the front I had to wait whilst our trainee...
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Merchandising

Customers like to know what is going on, especially if there is a deal to be had, but more often than not we miss an opportunity to tell them. It happens for a variety of reasons, but costs you money which would be much better served in your till! Customers like to have regular changes and offers rotating to keep them interested – can you imagine shops on the high street never changing their windows! Quite often we put the failure of an offer down to poor artwork or lack of customer interest but did they really know it was on? We all see on average between 2-3000 adverts a day, so how do you make sure they see yours? The rough rule of thumb is that your customer needs to see your offer 3 times to be aware of it. So how do we make sure that happens? Best place to start is standing outside your venue and seeing...
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Latest news

NEWS Owner of the FishWorks restaurant chain, Ranjit Boparan, has acquired fish and chip shop business Harry Ramsden's and plans to expand the chain by opening up to 100 new sites over the next five years. caterersearch.com CAMRA has opened up nominations for Club of the Year 2011. Any club with open membership and serves top quality real ale is open to the competition. Nominations complete with name and address can be submitted at www.camra.org.uk/coty According to the M&C Report, the new Jamie Oliver restaurant announced this week is to be a barbecue concept called Barbacoa and will be used as a launch pad for a roll-out Bob Cotton has been has been named the chair of the newly-created London Business Tourism Group. caterersearch.com Equifax's latest Business Services Report shows that failures within the services sector, which includes hotels, restaurants and bars, dropped 10.4% year-on-year in the final quarter of the year McDonald's will create 5,000 new jobs in the UK this...
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Weekly News

Longshot, the former owners of the Groucho Club and London's first 24-hour restaurant, have raised £30m to buy pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels. M&C Report Garry Shewan, assistant chief constable of Greater Manchester police has warned that cheap supermarket alcohol and 24-hour drinking is stretching police resources. The Sun Celebrity chef, Marco Pierre White, has announced that he is to expand his restaurant business with the launch of three new units in the North West of England. The report on caterersearch.com said that he "will launch two restaurants and an events venue in Lancashire, in January 2010". JD Wetherspoon has bought five pubs from Punch Taverns. The freehold pubs are expected to receive £4m worth of investment before reopening in January 2010. thepublican.com Hotel revenue per available room rose by 1.5% in London in the week ending 24 October 2009. The report by hospitality research company STR Global, also revealed that occupancy grew by 3.7 percentage points, to 86.1% Caterersearch.com Pubs have two...
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Weekly update

New Year's Eve revellers are set to get an extra six hours of reduced VAT drinking. Treasury minister Stephen Timms announced that the rate which rises back to its normal 17.5% at midnight on 31 December will remain at 15% for pubs, restaurants and clubs until 6am on New Year's Day. BBC News Wagamama is to open six new sites in 2010. M&C Report The former Punch Taverns head Deborah Kemp has been appointed as chief operating officer at the De Vere Group. The Campaign for Real Ale has begun a campaign to re-open seven Bristol pubs. Operating with the motto 'Love a Local Pub', the Bristol and District branch of CAMRA has been contacting breweries, pub chains and operators in a bid to get the pubs re-opened. morningadvertiser.co.uk Scottish & Newcastle UK has announced that it will print alcohol unit information on all its beer glasses with the aim of promoting responsible drinking. The initiative will start this month with the alcohol...
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Market news

According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), consumer confidence is at its highest level for more than a year. The BRC's consumer confidence index, put together with market researchers Nielsen, shows a 10-point gain, versus the all-time low reported in April of this year. thepublican.com London hotel occupancy levels for September rose compared to levels experienced last year. According to figures released by PKF Hotel Consultancy Services, hoteliers enjoyed 85.1% occupancy, 3% higher than in September 2008. caterersearch.com Costa Coffee has opened its 1,000th store in the UK. The operator reached the landmark last week with the opening of a site at St David's Shopping Centre in Cardiff. M&C Report According to a report in the Irish Independent, more than 1,500 pubs, hotels and restaurants have gone to the wall in the country over the past five years. Heineken has bought the 421-strong Globe Pub Company from receivership for a reported £180m to salvage a beer supply and management contract. Daily Telegraph Red...
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