All MCA Insight articles in December 2013
View all stories from this issue.
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News
Bathams PBT falls 4.8%
Daniel Batham & Son, the West Midlands brewer and pub operator, saw pre-tax profits fall 4.8% to £1.3m in the year to 30 June 2013
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News
Smith & Wollensky closes in on UK debut
Smith & Wollensky, the high-end US steakhouse group launched by TGI Friday’s founder Alan Stillman, is in talks to make its debut in the UK and is believed to be closing in on a site just off London’s The Strand
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NewsAB InBev UK swings into profit
AB InBev UK turned around a loss to report a pre-tax profit of £13.4m in the year to 29 December 2012 and revealed that retail sales of its Stella Artois Cidre Apple brand reached £59.9m in the period
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Opinion
A surprise and a space race
After a long interview process, which allowed him to get to know Mitchells & Butlers’ (M&B) people, and business fundamentals, and also hear a candid assessment from the board on what they thought needed to be done to transform the company, Alistair Darby admits that there was only one surprise awaiting him when he took up his new role as chief executive last October
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News
TCG launches 'most innovative' cocktail menu
TCG says it will be the first mainstream operator to offer American cocktail craze Pickleback in its new cocktail menu launched this month, which is billed as the most innovative in the mainstream pub and bar sector
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News
Box Steam names ex-Carlsberg exec as sales director
Box Steam Brewery, the Wiltshire-based craft brewer, has appointed a former senior sales executive at Carlsberg UK as its new sales director
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News
Greene King sets out Retail success factors
Greene King said that the continued success across its Retail division was driven by seven key factors
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NewsGreene King Retail lfls grow 3.5%
Greene King, the brewer and pub operator, has reported a 3.5% rise in like-for-like sales in the 24 weeks to 13 October and said it’s planning a further 90 acquisitions for its managed Retail estate over the next 18 months
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News
La Tasca wins NE restaurant of the year award
La Tasca has collected the Restaurant of the Year title at the ninth annual City of Durham Retail Awards
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News
Realpubs founders launch new company
Nick Pring and Malcolm Heap, the founders of Realpubs which was acquired by Greene King two year for £53.1m, have named their new company Urban Pubs and Bars and said they hoped to grow an estate of up to 20 sites across London’s “urban villages” over the next four years
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News
Jimmy’s appoints group executive chef
Jimmy’s World Kitchen has appointed Patrick Harness, the former executive chef of the Belfry Hotel, as its new group executive chef as it gears up to open four new sites over the next 12 months
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NewsPatisserie Valerie trials sandwich delivery
Patisserie Valerie, the Risk Capital Partners-backed chain, is trialling a lunchtime sandwich delivery service in Leeds, which it hopes to roll out to more of its sites in time
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News
Garrity launches Est Est
Stephen Garrity, the managing director of the Est Est Est brand, has opened a new restaurant called Est Est in Aigburth, Liverpool
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News
Lend Lease to measure guest experience
Lend Lease has signed an agreement with Service Management Group (SMG) to provide guest experience measurement tools and analysis at Bluewater
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NewsPing Pong grows sales and profitability
Ping Pong, the dim sum chain, has grown like-for-like sales and profitability since September after a “mixed performance” in the five months before then, chief executive Art Sagiryan has told M&C Report
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News
Cibo secures Marco Marco sites
Cibo Restaurants, the North West-based group launched by Philip Davies, has secured the majority of the former Marco Marco estate and is looking at further opening opportunities in the region
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NewsMarston’s accelerating towards managed pub operator status
A leading analyst has said that the recent full-year results from Marston’s provided further evidence of the company accelerating the transformation process to become a predominately managed pub operator
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NewsFuller’s targets service consistency
Fuller’s expects to “win” on the issue of offering consistently high levels of service at its managed pubs in the next year, something that’s not currently happening on a consistent basis, according to chief executive Simon Emeny
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OpinionI predict a…
Stefan Chomka looks ahead to what 2014 has in store, with 10 predictions, some “dead-certs” like Alan Yau’s opening of ‘Asian gastropub’ Duck & Rice rekindling publicans’ desires to return to the heady days of the mid 1990s where a Thai restaurant was the pub accessory du jour; and some more avant-garde, including the possible opening of bread and butter concept called B&B