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OpinionLet’s raise a glass-half-full this Christmas
Despite a prevailing sense of gloom over costs, it was refreshing to hear some genuine positivity from hospitality leaders looking ahead to 2026
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OpinionThe Dom Walsh Awards 2025
From industry veteran and long-standing Mitchells & Butlers chairman Bob Ivell, to Simon Emeny and Jeremy Clarkson, MCA’s columnist dishes out this year’s industry gongs
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OpinionPop-up food markets: crowd pleaser or footfall stealer?
While festive and other temporary markets act as hubs of activity and are a draw for tourists, bringing more footfall into the area, are they always in the best interests of the permanent tenants they have popped-up next to?
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OpinionCrisp Pizza on relocating pubs
Carl McCluskey points the finger at the landlord of his family Hammersmith pub; and a flamboyant former pub tycoon joins forces with a former PM for a private members’ club wheeze
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OpinionThe last bastion: Hospitality will continue to make memories in a world of AI
As transactional interactions become commonplace, venues offering genuine hospitality and personal connection will become increasingly valuable, Philip Harrison writes for MCA
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OpinionDeeper risks in the food system
Food supply risks are increasing, and hospitality businesses are in danger of being blindsided by day-to-day challenges, David Read, chairman and founder of Prestige Purchasing writes for MCA
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OpinionGerry Carroll: ‘To present this budget as support is indefensible’
Valiant Pub Company’s co-founder accused the government of being either ‘incompetent in policy design or outright dishonest’. Featuring additional commentary from JW Lees and Oak Taverns.
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OpinionCan Jamie’s Italian recapture the zeitgeist?
Jamie’s Italian was once a gamechanger for casual dining. Now, nearly two decades after it was founded, the celebrity chef has partnered with Brava Hospitality to bring the brand back
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OpinionSimon Emeny: ‘There’s no plan for economic growth and, without it, nowhere left to go’
The executive chair of Fuller’s says the budget was worse than he feared and leaves pubs and hotels ‘being wrung dry by tax shocks’
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OpinionTop chef’s astonishment over pub’s rateable values
One of Britain’s most acclaimed chefs, and owner of a growing colleciton of premium pubs in Yorkshire, Tommy Banks is one of many operators who have been left gobsmacked by new business rates bills which appear to penalise their success
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OpinionByron: What’s next for the embattled burger brand?
Having just avoided collapse for the fourth time in a decade, and with only seven restaurants remaining, MCA explores what the future might hold for the ‘proper hamburger’ business under 21-year-old investor, and founder of Niyamo Capital, Akshat Tibrewala - its new majority shareholder
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OpinionSacha Lord: ‘How can pubs survive hammer blow budget?’
Night Time Industries Association chairman Sacha Lord has described Chancellor Rachel Reeves announcement on business rates reform as “an act of shocking betrayal”, with some businesses to see their rates rise by 400% or more.
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OpinionCharlie Gilkes: ‘Reeves has hammered final nail in coffin of pubs’
The Inception Group co-founder has said the huge rise in business rates bills from increased valuations “spells disaster for the hospitality sector”, and has urged the government to reconsider
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OpinionSt Austell CEO: ‘Budget heaps more cost and pain on a sector that simply cannot bear it’
Kevin Georgel says the combined impact of the 2024 and 2025 autumn budget’s will force St Austell Brewery “to scale significantly scale back our investment plans”, and accuses the government of doing ”the opposite” of its promise to rebalance business rates
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OpinionBusiness rates changes ‘gaslighting at its worst’
Promising to level the playing field with online giants, the government’s new business rates plan is leaving many hospitality operators facing material increases in their tax burden
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OpinionDid Andrew Rennie talk himself out of a job?
The Domino’s Pizza Group CEO abruptly departed after overseeing a period of challenged trading and sliding share price, the failure to acquire a second brand, and a regrettable interview where he appeared to suggest there was little growth left in the pizza market
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OpinionDownbeat assessment of a government ‘that’s throttling us’
Describing the restaurant trade as simply “not great fun” right now, senior leaders spoke of a deterioration in trade which in some dayparts bordered on “catastrophic”
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OpinionPub titans of years gone by: where are they now?
MCA columnist Dominic Walsh looks back at the talented, forward-thinking and controversial pub operators of his 28 year journalism career, and checks in on the likes of Ted Tuppen, Giles Thorley, Adam Fowle and Tim Clarke
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OpinionSimon Emeny: ‘Chancellor needs to find ambitious and innovative ways to drive growth’
The country “cannot tax our way to victory – there must be an alternative approach and that needs new ideas and new thinking”, the Fuller’s CEO writes in The Standard.
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OpinionHow hospitality should prepare for business rates changes in the November Budget
Colliers’ John Webber argues against the introduction of new lower multipliers, warning they will harm rather than protect the high street