All MCA Insight articles in June 2020 – Page 5
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NewsWagamama looks to the future with reopening plan
Wagamama CEO Emma Woods has hailed the cost-effective way the brand closed its estate, as it focusses on the safe reopening of its restaurants.
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NewsPub sector warns of crisis over unclear opening date
More than 50 pub company and brewery CEOs have urged the Prime Minister to give a definitive reopening date for all pubs by Friday, as the sector “hits crisis point”.
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NewsSecond lockdown would see one in three operators go bust - Hospitality Leaders Poll
A second lockdown would see one in three hospitality businesses go under, according to the latest weekly Hospitality Leaders Poll by MCA Insight/HIM. It found that 31% of operators said in the event of a second lockdown they would not survive. A further 44% said they didn’t know. On a more positive note, one in four operators said they would be able to survive another period of lockdown.
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NewsThoughts as we approach June Rent Day
The March 2020 quarter rent day was memorable for many reasons. Since then, lockdown has bitten hard and for many food and drink businesses. Creative operators rapidly reinvented their operations in response to the restrictions, while a lucky few have found their businesses well suited to the situation and have thrived. Most, however, are in survival mode. And now the June quarter rent day is almost upon us. The announcement of 100% business rates relief for retail and F&B occupiers in 2020/21 was welcome and the long-awaited review of the business rates system is due this autumn.
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NewsWarehouse Project founder Sacha Lord: We won’t reopen until we can do it properly
Nightclub and live gig venues may be some of the last to reopen, but Greater Manchester’s night-time economy advisor Sacha Lord won’t be shifting his models to speed up the process.
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OpinionA darker storm lies in wait
“It was, finally, for everyone, a matter of waiting. You waited and you waited, for the hospital, the doctor, the plumber, the madhouse, the jail, papa death himself… The citizens of the world ate food and watched TV and worried about their jobs or lack of the same, while they waited.” That’s from Charles Bukowski’s novel Women, but it feels topical today. Anyone else fed up with waiting? Anyone else frustrated, impatient, angry and worried about waiting?
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NewsWestminster Council sets out hospitality recovery proposal
In order for hospitality businesses in Westminster to continue trading whilst distancing is in place, the local council will be implementing a number of measures to create space for pavement dining, it has said.
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NewsEi Publican Partnership announces £280,000 PPE package
Ei Publican Partnerships, Ei Group’s leased and tenanted business, has said it will distribute up to one million items of PPE throughout its pub estate ahead of reopening.
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NewsDomino’s lfls up 6.1% in half year to date
Domino’s UK like for like sales were up 6.1% for the first half of the year to date.
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NewsPret trials click and collect
Pret has launched a click and collect trial in five of its London stores.
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NewsMcDonald’s sees signs of recovery in global sales
McDonald’s global sales began to gradually improve in May as it reached the 90% reopened store mark.
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NewsSeafood Pub Co files for administration
The Seafood Pub Company, the multi-awarding group, has ceased trading after going into administration.
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NewsRent code of practice a “waste of time” and “waffle”
The code of practice for commercial landlords and tenants introduced by the government earlier this month “changes nothing”, JKS CEO Jyotin Sethi has told MCA. Speaking at MCA’s virtual event The Conversation, Sethi said the code just “encourages productive dialogue between landlords and tenants, which is what we were doing in any case. I think there’s lots more that’s needed, an extension of the lease enforcement moratorium for example, to give more time for those broken relationships and for negotiations to develop. So, for me it was it was a little bit of a waste of time.
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NewsJKS CEO Jyotin Sethi: Change of narrative needed to persuade people to go out
A change of narrative on the risks of coronavirus will be needed to persuade middle-ground consumers to visits restaurants and bars, JKS Restaurants CEO Jyotin Sethi has told MCA’s The Conversation.
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NewsDeliveroo and restaurant CEOs warn of grave damage ahead
Deliveroo has teamed up with a host of restaurant CEOs including Itsu Founder and CEO Julian Metcalfe, Pret CEO Pano Christou, Wagamama CEO Emma Woods, and Neil Manhas, GM of Pizza Hut, to urge the government to provide an increased level of support for the industry. It has sent a letter to the PM, signed by 90 CEOs representing over 1,000 restaurants, to call for action over issues including cutting VAT on restaurant food and extending the JRS for restaurants while social distancing measures remain in place.
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NewsGreggs to reopen 800 stores
Greggs plans to reopen 800 shops for takeaway only on 18 June. All stores will have the by now familiar safety measures, like floor markings to maintain social distancing, protective screens, PPE for staff, a reduced menu, additional cleaning and cash will not be accepted. The business said it had been making a “variety of proposals in return for rent reductions” to landlords and that “all landlords have been informed of our plan to move to monthly rent payments from June. We made our full quarterly rent payment in March as usual.”
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NewsSafety guidelines for hospitality could be “weeks” away
With just three weeks ago before the mooted 4 July deadline for reopening, Dominic Raab has warned hospitality it could take “weeks” for safety guidelines to be produced after the government ordered another review of existing social distancing measures. At the government’s daily briefing, Mark Andrews, from the Shropshire Star, asked about reducing the two metre rule down to one metre for the hospitality industry, what targets would need to be met and how close the government was to meeting them.
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NewsGovernment needs to confirm reopening date, says UK Hospitality
UK Hospitality has said the government needs to confirm a reopening date for hospitality so businesses can prepare for it properly. CEO Kate Nicholls has written to Secretaries of State at BEIS and DCMS, to emphasise the urgent need for clarity. “We need confirmation of the reopening date for hospitality businesses without any further delay,” she said. “Businesses need time to prepare and the first step in giving them some much-needed clarity is confirmation of when they can open their doors again.
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NewsIndustry staff ‘locked out’ of government support
The hospitality sector has been named in a Treasury select committee report which finds more than 1m people have been locked out of government coronavirus support schemes.
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NewsCreams intros QR codes for menus, order and pay
Dessert parlour brand Creams is introducing QR codes at its cafés as part of safeguarding and social distancing measures for dine-in customers.