‘Slightly unnerving’: Greene King enlists AI to answer pub phones April 29, 2026 Greene King has turned to AI-generated assistants to staff its bars as hospitality firms battle to absorb rising costs, City AM can reveal. The Chinese-owned pub chain, one of the UK’s largest, is using a “virtual assistant” named “Charlie” to answer the phone at a number of sites, including in London. The shift to digital [...]
Hows Trump’s war in Iran is hitting hospitality April 22, 2026 The hospitality sector has already been hammered by taxes, regulation and minimum wage hikes. Now Trump’s war in Iran is hitting everyone’s discretionary spending, says Sacha Lord I’ve written so much about how Hospitality, not just in London, but across the whole of the UK is suffering right now. I’ve been scathing towards the Chancellor, [...]
‘Devastating’ tube strikes: Pubs brace for 40 per cent sales hit April 20, 2026 London’s pubs and restaurants are bracing for a knock of as much as 40 per cent of daily sales from this week’s tube strikes as industry leaders warn of the “devastating” impact on hospitality. The capital’s hospitality industry is set to be the hardest-hit from the industrial action, which is due to begin at noon [...]
‘Relentless pressures’: More hospitality firms forced to shut even before Iran war April 17, 2026 The rate of corporate collapse in hospitality surged in February in signs the sector was struggling to stay afloat even before the Iran war brought further cost pressures. The number of accommodation and food service firms declaring insolvency jumped by 22 per cent to 270 in February, according to government data. This acceleration of the crisis [...]
Beer fear: CO2 shortage could lead to state-backed beer at World Cup April 16, 2026 Brits face drinking state-backed beer during the Fifa World Cup as CO2 shortage fears leave breweries and boozers reliant on government gas. The war in Iran has caused chaos across Gulf shipping lanes with government analysis suggesting a closure of the Strait of Hormuz for a long period of time could lead to shortages of [...]
Brewdog could mount $1bn resurgence, new owner says April 16, 2026 The new owner of Brewdog has said the craft beer brand can be worth $1bn, as the firm tries to “rebuild” the brand to its former glory. Tilray, a US-based cannabis and alcohol products firm, said it plans to pile significant investment into Brewdog to make it profitable next year and propel it towards a [...]
Energy bills threat recedes but retail and hospitality remain on brink April 8, 2026 Retail and hospitality leaders are optimistic that the Iran-US ceasefire could spare them from the worst energy bill shocks, but are urging the government to address an array of other cost pressures. British businesses had warned that the soaring energy prices caused by the war in the Middle East could be devastating if the conflict [...]
Two-thirds of hospitality firms to cut jobs as April tax rises ‘suffocate’ sector April 1, 2026 Two-thirds of hospitality businesses will be forced to cut jobs and one in seven will shut altogether as a direct result of “suffocating” April tax rises, leading trade bodies have found. More than half (51 per cent) of hospitality firms will cancel investment plans and 42 per cent will reduce trading hours, according to a [...]
Guinness Index: How much is a pint of the black stuff in your borough? March 25, 2026 While the ONS has added hummus and dog grooming to its sample shopping basket in a bid to move with the times when tracking inflation – City AM prefers a cooler metric: the Guinness Index. Nothing encapsulates British consumer habits like Guinness’ meteoric rise: taking stout from the preserve of grey-haired aficionados to an ever-present [...]
Where is London’s cheapest pint? March 25, 2026 Drawn out of the office and into the City’s pubs by the springtime sun, Square Mile workers will face a bitter taste when they pay for their pints. The City of London is one of the 28 London boroughs where the cost of a pint has surged over the past two years, with the price [...]