All Zizzi articles – Page 3
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Analysis & InsightBangkok bounce back?
Once the darling of the Thai restaurant scene, Busaba has had a tough few years, with falling profits and site closures. Now with a simplified offer and a fresh focus on the capital, it’s looking to bounce back
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Analysis & InsightBeating the January blues
There is an easy logic behind the third Monday in January being the most depressing day of the year, despite the underpinning research coming under question.
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NewsGunwharf Quays – Restaurant and retail therapy a plenty!
With more than 30 bars, cafés and restaurants (as well as over 90 shops) Gunwharf Quays offers an abundance of opportunities for plenty of remedial treatment. Supported by its impressive waterfront location, attractive design and assorted leisure-related reasons to visit, Gunwharf Quays is one of the UK’s finest outlet shopping centres. So amongst some Christmas shopping, I was keen to see how it is using its extensive assortment of Food & Beverage purveyors to both restore weary shoppers as well as to act as a footfall driver in its own right. But also, and more critically, I was keener to see some something new and surprising.
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OpinionSteve Holmes: ‘If you wind the clock forward, people will eat out more than ever’
Relevant operators can grind out profit growth, but it’s not an easy time, Azzurri Group’s Steve Holmes has told MCA.
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NewsAzzurri Group achieves lfl growth across portfolio
Azzurri Group has reported a group sales increase of 7% for the year ended 30 June 2019, to £299.4m, with like-for-like sales growth seen across its four brands.
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NewsGetting a taste for New Product Development
Regardless of their industry, innovation is widely recognised as the lifeblood of organisations. If we focus on new product development (NPD), then MCA’s Menu Tracker analysis for Spring/Summer 2019 shows that it is getting ever more prevalent. Looking at over 8,000 dishes across over 110 operators in the London region, over 600 were flagged as ‘new’ on menus. This equates to 8%, significantly higher than the 4% and 6% seen in previous years.
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NewsBranded restaurant market – green shoots of recovery?
Turning tables is a long-established practice in the restaurant market, albeit perhaps one more commonly associated with times of more buoyant trading than those currently prevailing. Highlighting just how fast the fortune tables can turn in this market, I was fascinated by some recent MCA analysis looking at physical growth by branded restaurant chains across different portfolio sizes. This year, the estate bracket sub-category that is anticipated to add the most net new sites will be ‘small’ operators.
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NewsGreggs tops Brand Health index
Greggs has been named the number eating out brand in YouGov’s Brand Health Index.
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NewsSustainable Restaurant Association backs climate-friendly foods
The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) has launched a new initiative called Foodprint to help restaurants and foodservice companies to use more eco-friendly ingredients.
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NewsAzzurri studies Pod delivery hub model
The Azzurri Group will convert the first Pod store to Coco di Mama in around September, before switching three or four more before Christmas, CEO Steve Holmes has told MCA.
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NewsCosy Club and Zizzi among operators to open at Drake Circus
A number of restaurants, bars and leisure brands will be opening at a new leisure and entertainment development in Plymouth city centre, called Drake Circus Leisure.
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NewsAzzurri appoints digital director
Azzurri Group has appointed Sainsbury’s Joel Robinson to the new role of digital and technology director.
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News
Former Tasty and Giggling Squid directors prep new venture
Former Tasty managing director Jo Morrison and Giggling Squid operations direction Peter Morrison are launching a new all-day dining restaurant concept in Hove.
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OpinionMark out of Ten: Zizzi doing it for the ‘Gram
This week the Azzurri Group became the first UK restaurant group to hire a dedicated Instagrammer, to promote its Zizzi chain. In his latest MCA column, Mark McCulloch – the brand and marketing guru behind Supersonic Inc – gives his view on the appointment and asks why the sector as a whole has been so slow to embrace this sort of innovation.
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NewsZizzi’s hires food photography Instagram influencer for campaign
Zizzi’s has hired James Thompson, an Instagrammer famous for his food photos, to create its first online photography portfolio, according to The Star.
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NewsAzzurri Group appoints ex Market Town Taverns MD
The Azzurri Group has appointed the former managing director of Market Town Taverns, Louise Middlemass, as it restructures its operational team for the Zizzi brand.
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OpinionGotham’s Easter quiz
With the Easter bank holiday weekend almost upon us, MCA’s market insight director Steve Gotham offers up a bit of a light-hearted break from the norm with a test of your knowledge of the eating and drinking out market.
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NewsAzzurri Group appoints Zizzi FD
The Azzurri Group has appointed Karen Sweetman as finance director for its Zizzi brand.
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Analysis & InsightBig no longer beautiful among casual restaurant brands?
Are the days of restaurant brands growing to 100+ sites really over? MCA’s market insight director, Steve Gotham, takes a look at what can be learnt from the chains that have already surpassed this milestone and who has the potential to be the next centurion of casual dining.
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Analysis & InsightWagamama named customers' favourite in 'fundex'
Wagamama has been rated as the UK’s favourite eating out brand in a major survey of the customer journey by OC&C management consultants.