All MCA Insight articles in October 2020 – Page 13
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NewsKhan warns Deliveroo over treating restaurants fairly
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has written to Deliveroo amid claims the delivery company is over charging small restaurants groups.
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NewsSEV has cash for 12 months
Social Entertainment Ventures, the operator of Bounce, Hijingo and Flight Club USA, has reported it has adequate financial resources to continue operating for at least 12 months based on its forecasts.
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InterviewsPret UK MD Clare Clough: Crisis ‘powered up the engines’ for our digital transformation
The onset of the coronavirus crisis caused Pret to “power up the engines” and move at pace with its digital transformation strategy, UK MD Clare Clough has said.
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NewsMPs told of ‘severe and devastating impact’ of curfew
UK Hospitality CEO Kate Nicholls urged MPs to rethink the 10pm curfew yesterday, saying it was “crippling hospitality businesses”.
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NewsCurfew vote postponed amid Tory rebellion
A parliamentary vote on the 10pm curfew was postponed last night amid a growing Tory rebellion over the measure.
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InterviewsRestaurant Group CEO Andy Hornby: TRG is emerging stronger and leaner
Under normal circumstances, any CEO of a restaurant group posting a half-year loss of over £200m would be gone. But these are not normal circumstances. So despite that huge fall in pre-tax profits, over half of which was down to restructuring costs, The Restaurant Group CEO Andy Hornby believes the 400-site business is in “good shape, all things considered. You have to judge your performance in the context of what’s going on around you.” Has there ever been context as chaotic as this? “It’s such a strange period,” says Hornby, and it’s fair to say that sales and profits have been so wildly skewed by the events of the last few months that judging any operation by the numbers over the last six months feels pointless.
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NewsSunak: Don’t jump to ‘simplistic conclusions’ on virus transmission
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has defended his Eat Out to Help Out scheme, arguing people should be “cautious about jumping to simplistic conclusions” about causes of transmission.
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NewsAnalysts Verdict: The Restaurant Group
J.P. Morgan: We expect a positive market reaction to Restaurant Group’s 1H results. The Group shows it is taking decisive action with its restructuring plan exiting underperforming sites and agreeing improved rental terms with landlord and airport partners. Trading performance post-lockdown is encouraging with Wagamama and Pubs seeing solid LFL growth and outperform their markets, while Leisure has traded in line with the market, and Concessions’ sales being ahead of the passenger declines. In response to COVID-19, costs have been reduced and liquidity has been improved with ND of c.£311m being better than management earlier anticipated. We update our model, reducing forecasts and hence lower our Dec-20 DCF based price target to 110p. Remain OW.
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InterviewsPizza Pilgrims co-founder Thom Elliot: ‘Ignore delivery demand at your peril’
Consumer demand for delivery is only set to increase, and operators ignoring that trend are doing so at their peril, Pizza Pilgrims co-founder Thom Elliot has said.
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Analysis & InsightFood to go to see 41% bounce back in 2021
Food to go will see a significant bounce back from its 2020 decline next year, increasing its share of the overall eating out market, according to Lumina Intelligence.
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NewsTory rebels could overturn curfew in parliamentary vote
The 10pm curfew could be voted out as it has emerged a group of Tory backbenchers are prepared to move against the measure, the Telegraph reports.
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NewsSurvey - 69% looking at restructuring or insolvency
More than 80% of UK hospitality operators believe their commercial terms with landlords will not be sufficient to see their businesses through this next phase of trading restrictions.
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NewsTRG hopes to be “one of the long-term winners” with 40% retained estate
The Restaurant Group has reported “very encouraging” post-lockdown trading as it hopes its 60% estate reduction will allow it to emerge as “one of the long-term winners.”
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NewsCrowdcube to acquire Seedrs
The UK’s leading crowdfunding platforms are set to merge after Crowdcube agreed a deal to acquire Seedrs.
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NewsOdeon to cut opening times
Odeon is to cut the opening hours in several of its UK and Ireland cinemas response to delays in new film releases.
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NewsCurfew prompts mass late-night redundancies
The implementation of the 10pm curfew and further restrictions on hospitality last month have confirmed mass job cuts across the late-night sector, according to the latest insight from Sprout CRM and the Night Time Industries Association.
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InterviewsD&D London CEO Des Gunewardena: ‘We’re going to suck it up and get on with it’
Like so many others in the sector, D&D London CEO Des Gunewardena is now well accustomed to receiving bad news. As the operator behind some of central London’s most iconic corporate and fine dining hot-spots, the government’s latest round of restrictions forcing city workers back out of the office and socialites to bed by 10pm have had an inevitable impact on the business. But Gunewardena is “trying to stay positive,” and having accepted that we could be living in a world of continued uncertainty for quite some time, his ‘new normal’ management style when it comes to the group’s 41-strong estate is “to suck it up and get on with it,” he tells MCA.
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NewsThree-tier system could see return of full lockdown
A new three-tier lockdown system is under consideration for England, with the potential for harsher restrictions including the closure of pubs and restaurants.
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NewsDeliveroo feature promises deeper customer engagement
Deliveroo has published details about its new feature, ‘Brought to you by Deliveroo’, which allows customers to order for delivery directly from restaurants’ websites for the first time.
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Analysis & InsightSales hit hard by new restrictions
Sales were hit hard in the last week of September as new restrictions were introduced, with like-for-like sales down 22.8% year on year.