All Azzurri Group articles – Page 3
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Interviews
Azzurri CEO Steve Holmes: Things are changing all the time
Do you remember what is was like to go to a restaurant and order a plate of spaghetti? I miss it hugely, and I’m just a hungry customer. So how does Azzurri CEO Steve Holmes, who runs 295 restaurants, feel about seeing his entire estate shut down? “It’s desperately sad, because we’ve made really strong progress over the last four years,” he says. “Zizzi’s NPS score moved up to number six, the highest ever. Ask was also racing up. We opened an Ask in Westfield just before everything closed and it was trading incredibly well.”
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News
CDG in restructuring talks
Causal Dining Group is in talks with advisory firm Alixpartners about a financial restructuring to secure the business through the coronavirus crisis.
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News
Debt enforcement moratorium still needed - MCA poll
More than half of operators, (54%) said that their landlord had refused to offer any concessions, with an additional 34% saying that negotiations were ongoing, according to the latest weekly Hospitality Leaders Poll by MCA Insight/HIM. The results highlight further the need for a debt enforcement moratorium, one of the key pillars of Hospitality Union’s original six-point action plan, to give both commercial tenants and landlords breathing space against litigation.
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News
Azzurri appoints KPMG
The Azzurri Group has turned to KPMG as it looks to find a way out of the coronavirus crisis, according to the Sunday Times. It also said the business was still waiting to find out if it was eligible for a business interruption loan. Last year Azzurri, which operates Ask, Zizzi and Coco di Mama, made a pre-tax loss of £16m on sales of £299m.
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News
Bridgepoint sets up £3m covid-19 hardship fund
Bridgepoint, the backer of Burger King, Azzurri Group, Market Halls and Deliveroo, has set up a £3m hardship fund to support charities and communities affected by Covid-19.
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News
GBK and Azzurri reportedly appoint advisors
Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Azzurri Group have reportedly appointed advisors to assess their options going forward through the coronavirus crisis.
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News
Editor’s Opinion: Hang tight and plan your return
The coronavirus continues to wreak havoc. It’s claimed hundreds of thousands of lives around the world and numbers continue to rise. As dreadful as that is, the long term socio-economic impact is more disturbing. The virus has created a level of disruption to health, society, and the economy that’s never happened before, outside of wartime. And while there is plenty of speculation on how life in general may get back to normal post-lockdown, with vaguely optimistic or pessimistic dates floating around, there is no clarity on how or when this might end.
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News
Timeline: How the coronavirus crisis unfolded
Here are just some of the twists and turns over the last few weeks. If you want to read all the MCA coverage of the coronavirus crisis click here.
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News
Azzurri shuts entire estate
Azzurri Group is to close all Ask, Zizzi and Coco di Mama restaurants from today, CEO Steve Holmes has announced.
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News
UKH and Industry CEOs call on Government for immediate support
In a joint letter with UK Hospitality, over 200 CEOs from across the hospitality industry have appealed to the Prime Minister to ’act without delay’ in implementing immediate government support for the sector.
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News
Azzurri crowned at Casual Dining Awards second year running
Azzurri Group, Wagamama and The Ivy Collection were amongst those named as the UK’s best pub, bar and restaurant operators at the Casual Dining Awards yesterday.
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Analysis & Insight
A stock-take on physical expansion
A stock-take on physical expansion – Review of 2019 risers and fallers
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News
Retailers’ Retailer full nominees list revealed
The finalists for MCA’s Retailers’ Retailer Awards 2020 have been announced, with the cohort reflecting a diverse and vibrant range of eating and drinking out operators.
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News
Ask fined £40,000 for lack of lobster
Ask has been fined £40,000 after selling a ‘misleading’ plate of pasta - although it got a discount off the bill for pleading guilty. The Italian chain, owned by parent company Azzurri, had been selling its £14.95 Aragosta e Gamberoni dish, described as lobster and king prawns in a tomato and chilli sauce, since 2014.
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News
How can tech ease the customer journey?
Greggs, Leon and Wagamama are just the latest to join the self-ordering revolution, with the latter’s new grab and go concept Mamago one of the most hotly discussed openings of last year. To share their early exeperiences and more, MCA brought together marketing, IT and digital leaders from across the sector to consider how new technology can help, and sometimes hinder, the customer experience
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News
Review of the Year Part Two
When England achieved the impossible, and destroyed the indestructible All Blacks in the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup, it looked like it was going to be a bumper day for hospitality on the day of the final. The UK would wake up early and hit the pubs and bars first thing to watch England win the final, followed by trips to restaurants, followed by pubs, bars and clubs, before ending up slumped on the sofa trying to focus on the highlights and order a Deliveroo. All England had to do was win.
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News
Fast-moving grown-up Coco di Mama ‘can do’
Carbs and caffeine is a formula that has fuelled Coco di Mama’s expansion well. The fast-casual brand has been deftly serving long queues of office workers just that since 2011. This sweet spot customer, the 25-35-year-old affluent City worker, was the genesis of the brand in Fleet Street. While this core demographic served Coco well in its early years, a new management team last year realised it needed to broaden its appeal if it was to continue its expansion into adulthood.
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News
M&A Review of the Year
It certainly hasn’t been a year in hospitality M&A for the faint hearted, but for those who have stuck with the sector and taken a long-term view, opportunity has knocked. Despite fears of an investor hiatus as a result of lingering uncertainty (ongoing Brexit delays certainly haven’t been helpful to M&A advisors!), the past 12 months has again proved the robustness of the M&A market in this sector, and points to further opportunities for 2020.
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News
The Dom Walsh Awards
Our monthly columnist from The Times hands out his annual awards to brands and operators who have made the past 12 months newsworthy – for better or for worse…