All MCA Insight articles in October 2020 – Page 12
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NewsStar extends rent support
Star Pubs & Bars is to extend rent concessions for its leased and tenanted pubs throughout November.
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NewsUKH: Mistake to blame hospitality for Scottish spike
UK Hospitality has criticised the Scottish government’s mistaken use of data to justify new restrictions on hospitality venues, despite it being made “explicitly clear” the figures do not demonstrate the location of infection or transmission.
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NewsMcDonald’s global sales still in decline
McDonald’s has started to see a modest recovery across its markets, though global and UK sales are still down.
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NewsNorthern leaders to resist shutdown without support
City leaders in the North of England have vowed to resist a new hospitality shutdown without substantial financial support from central government.
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NewsLondon Mayor Sadiq Khan: Curfew doing “more harm than good”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has joined calls for a review of the 10pm curfew, accusing the move of doing “more harm than good.” In an update to the London Assembly this week, Khan said that in his view, the curfew not only appears to be ineffective but could be counterproductive in curbing infection rates.The number of new cases in the capital rose by 394 on Wednesday (07 October) to 1,310, the third highest daily regional rise in the UK.
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NewsCoqbull comes to Soho
Ireland-based chicken and burger concept Coqbull is to launch its first English site next month in London’s Soho.
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NewsNorthern cities braced for lockdown
Speculation is rising that Boris Johnson will order a shutdown of pubs and restaurants in northern England on Monday, according to a report in the Times. It said the prime minister “signed off” the regional lockdown as well as agreeing a new support package for affected businesses and a new “simplified” system of lockdown restrictions. It reports that “Merseyside and other parts of northern England” will see pubs, restaurants and cafés forced to close but schools and universities will remain open. It added that “Whitehall sources” had said the support package will be more generous that the measures outlined in the Winter Economy Plan.
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NewsShepherd Neame: “profitable and cash generative” since reopening
Shepherd Neame has said since July, “nearly all” its pubs have reopened and are trading “successfully”. In a trading update it said in the 13 weeks since 4 July the business has been “profitable and cash generative”. Net debt at the year-end was £84.4m with an additional £11m of tax liabilities that had been deferred in agreement with HMRC. As at 26 September net debt was £82.4m with the tax liabilities that had been deferred reduced to £5.7m with a further £1.2m of general deferrals. It said liquidity is “sufficient for the foreseeable future”. Like-for-like sales in the 64 managed pubs and hotels that were open for this period were down 7.9%.
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NewsNew River feeling positive post-lockdown
New River has said “almost all” of its pubs in England, Scotland and Wales are now open and trading. In a trading update it said its Hawthorne Leisure pub portfolio has “outperformed the wider market since the easing of lockdown restrictions. “For the 12 week period since 5 July 2020, the day pubs were allowed to open in England, like-for-like volumes in our Leased & Tenanted pubs were down only 8% compared to the same period in 2019, and like-for-like sales in our Operator Managed pubs were down 16% compared to the same period in 2019. “Our trading performance compares favourably to the wider market over the same period, with data from the Coffer Peach Business Tracker reporting that pub like-for-like sales are down 18% compared to the same period last year.
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InterviewsWelcome Break CEO John Diviney: ‘We’re looking to ourselves to provide the solutions for ourselves’
Motorway service operator Welcome Break will not be relying on government support to help it through the upcoming months of uncertainty, CEO John Diviney has said. Of the opinion that schemes put in place earlier in the year were “superb”, Diviney told MCA’s The Conversation that the business is now much better prepared to tackle whatever lies ahead, and it will henceforth be “looking to ourselves to provide the solutions for ourselves, rather than being reliant on government for every solution.”
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OpinionThe PM can’t produce the science because it doesn’t exist
Monday is looking like a big day. Make that another big day. Or maybe they are all big days at the moment, it certainly feels that way. News of CVAs and redundancies blur with curfews and localised lockdowns, or in the case of Scotland a near-total lockdown. The outlook is bleak. It all feels like bad news right now, the only hope is that the government sees sense and has a rethink over the 10pm curfew, or is forced into scrapping it following the curfew vote, which has been delayed from Tuesday to Monday so the PM can get his whip out. It will take a big party rebellion to overturn the curfew because every non-conservative MP would have to vote against it and be joined by 79 Tory rebels. Certainly not impossible, but not especially likely.
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Analysis & InsightHospitality Leaders Poll: 63% of operators will fail inside six months without government support
Unless the government steps in with more financial support, 63% of operators don’t believe they will make it through the next six months of the 10pm curfew, according to the latest weekly Hospitality Leaders Poll. As it moves into its second week, the sense among operators that the curfew will threaten their survival has increased, not least because another 87% believe that customer confidence in returning to eating and drinking out has taken a hit after the curfew was introduced. “The 10pm curfew is a knee jerk reaction that was ill-informed, not validated by evidence or empirical data and is actually making the R number worse in the capital by tipping thousands of customers into the streets and public transport system en masse,” said one operator. “It’s so silly and they should just admit they got it wrong and reverse it.”
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Analysis & InsightTop brands cut estates by 7.5%
Branded restaurants and pubs have announced cuts to their estates of 7.5% already this year, with fears that many more sites still closed since lockdown may never reopen.
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NewsPeach Pubs: A second national lockdown would be hugely costly
Peach has released its 2019 results and offered an update on current trading. Founder Hamish Stoddart said in 2019, the business was “flat like-for-like at £27m, whilst operating profit before exceptional items was £423k for 2019, down from £671k in 2018. The decrease is a disappointment reflecting the growing cost pressure on hospitality businesses in general between 2017 and 2019.” In 2020, Peach refinanced the business, selling four freeholds for ground rent leases and removing most of its debt. It opened a new pub in Maidenhead with a £750,000 refurbishment which closed after one day alongside all UK pubs on 20 March.
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NewsLPQ appoints new MD
Bakery chain Le Pain Quotidien has appointed Steven Whibley as its new managing director.
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NewsShutdown ordered in Scotland
Pubs and licensed premises in five of Scotland’s most populous areas will have to shut for 16 days from Friday, Nicola Sturgeon has announced.
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NewsGreene King to cut 800 jobs and close 80 sites
Greene King is planning to cut around 800 jobs and shut dozens of pubs following a drop off in trade as a result of the 10pm curfew.
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NewsScrimgeour leaves Cote, Holbrook steps up
Cote CEO Alex Scrimgeour is leaving the business following its acquisition by Partners Group, with Jane Holbrook to take over as executive chair.
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NewsWhich Wich launches delivery kitchens
Which Which, the US sandwich chain, is expanding its UK operations with the launch of two new dark kitchens, in Battersea and Bethnal Green.
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NewsChaiiwala signs deal with Domino’s franchisees
Indian street food café franchise Chaiiwala has signed an area agreement to roll out 10 new sites in Birmingham.