Wagamama owner The Restaurant Group reports mediocre interim results September 15, 2021 The Restaurant Group has reported lacklustre results for the first half of the year with a statutory loss before tax of £58.8m. Total sales stood at £216.8m, a 4.5 per cent drop compared to the same period in 2020. The company made a modest recovery when it came to EBITDA which jumped from a loss [...]
Deliveroo launches free delivery offer for Amazon Prime members September 15, 2021 Amazon Prime members in the UK and Ireland will be able to get free unlimited delivery through a fresh partnership with delivery platform Deliveroo. All new and existing members of the online retailer’s speedy service will now be able to access a year’s Deliveroo Plus membership for free. Customers can use the offer on orders [...]
Franco Manca’s Fulham Shore hails rising revenues after its full-year slip September 10, 2021 Fulham Shore, which owns Franco Manca, has hailed rising revenues in its latest trading update after it fell behind 2020’s recording. The hospitality group pulled in £40.3m in revenue in the year to 28 March, plunging 41.3 per cent from the £68.6m it raked in last year. But in the three weeks to 5 September, [...]
Lloyd’s of London reports £1.4bn profit in first half of 2021 September 9, 2021 Lloyd’s of London returned to profit in the first half of 2021, with the help of a stronger underwriting performance, the insurer announced this morning. The commercial insurance market’s results indicate its recovery after it incurred significant losses during the pandemic last year. In the same period a year ago Lloyd’s suffered a total loss [...]
Gordon’s wine bar: ‘Insane paperwork’ putting pressure on supplies September 8, 2021 London wine venues are experiencing shortages of some wines thanks to red tape and driver shortages. The Wine and Spirit Trade Association has warned some of the country’s favourite wines could be unavailable in the run up to Christmas. Bars and restaurants have struggled to keep menu items available because of shortages of packaging products [...]
How Hastens luxury beds are helping beat ‘Covidsomnia’ September 8, 2021 Before the onset of the pandemic, insomnia was something I’d only experienced vicariously, through the red-eyed stares of characters on screen, or the defeated anecdotes of colleagues with young children. I’ve always been a big sleeper, never really growing out of that teenage phase of lying in bed late at weekends and occasionally enjoying an [...]
Lloyds sued by customers sold mortgages linked to house prices September 6, 2021 Lloyds Banking Group is being sued by 150 homeowners who were sold mortgages tied to house price appreciation. The case has been brought against the Bank of Scotland, now part of Lloyds, in the High Court. It pertains to shared appreciation mortgages which were sold to thousands of customers in the late 1990s, the product [...]
Banks write-off £99m in loans to hotels and restaurants September 6, 2021 There has been a 65 per cent uptick in write-offs of loans to restaurants and hotels during the pandemic, Banks have written off £99m in the year to March 2021, up from £60m the previous year, according to research by international audit firm Mazars. Write-offs in lending to the leisure sector have began to rise [...]
Shortage of cans leads to scarcity of Diet Coke and Coke Zero products September 2, 2021 A shortage of aluminium cans looms for Coca-Cola’s bottling business in the UK and Europe as its supply chain has come under pressure. It comes as social media users have highlighted a scarcity of Diet Coke and Coke Zero products in recent weeks. Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) said today that it has faced “a number [...]
Mayor ‘ready’ to work with Westminster Council to maintain al fresco ‘lifeline’ for hospitality businesses August 27, 2021 Sadiq Khan has said he is “ready” to work with Westminster Council and local residents to maintain traffic-free roads in Soho. Cars have been barred from much of the capital’s oldest entertainment hub since the end of the first Covid-19 lockdown, with bars and restaurants setting up on the pedestrianised streets. But Westminster City Council [...]