Itsu gobbles up more customers as profits jumps September 29, 2015 FOOD conscious Britons seeking out healthier lunch options helped to drive up sales at Itsu by more than a fifth last year. The sushi specialist, launched by Pret a Manger founder Julian Metcalfe, posted a 20.8 per cent rise in turnover to £67.9m in the year to January, with like-for-like sales up by 6.8 per [...]
Soho House to raise £200m to fund expansion September 27, 2015 Soho House is trying to raise £200m in its second financing drive in two years. The group, which owns Shoreditch House and has 15 outposts around the world, including the recently opened Soho Farmhouse in Oxford, is looking to raise the funds to open six new houses and up to 30 restaurants over the next [...]
Tooting property prices: A fun, if a little pricey, area to buy a house on the Northern Line September 23, 2015 Not only does Tooting bear one of the most charming names out of all of London’s precincts, the Zone Three area has pretty good connections to the central London thanks to the Northern Line. A largely residential area, the rows of terraced housing have recently proven popular with the hordes of young professionals that [...]
Velocity buys Cover: UK dining app startup buys US restaurant payment firm and lands $4m from Saxo’s Lars Christensen and others September 22, 2015 Velocity, an app which lets you pay in restaurants without requesting a bill, has raised a further $4m (£2.6m) from investors, following hot on the heels from a $12m round of funding less than three months ago. The London-based startup has also acquired US company Cover, a restaurant mobile payments app for an undisclosed sum, more than [...]
New UK restaurant openings soar as pubs dwindle September 21, 2015 The number of restaurants across the UK surpassed the number of pubs that are predominantly drinking holes for the first time this year, fuelled by the booming casual dining trend and improving consumer confidence. Research released yesterday by AlixPartners and CGA Peach reveals that a net 1,770 new restaurants opened in the year to 30 [...]
Las Iguanas owner to sell £150m bonds September 20, 2015 THE OWNER of restaurant brands Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia, is planning to tap the debt markets as part of a refinancing that would see the group issue around £150m worth of bonds. Casual Dining Group (CDG), which was previously known as Tragus, has undergone a major restructuring since a consortium led by private equity [...]
The Rosebery founder Simon Davis on scrapheaps, sewing, MOTs and Angelina Jolie September 20, 2015 Did you know that Jeff Bezos used to photograph everyone he met so he wouldn't forget who they were? Neither did I, but when Simon Davis interviewed him, Amazon was still a startup – and it's just one of several gems Davis, founder of the London Restaurant Festival (LRF), The Rosebery and former journalist, wheels [...]
Mix it up: There’s more to coffee cocktails than the Espresso Martini September 16, 2015 Today, as you sip your morning coffee, take a moment to ponder London’s great institutions built under the influence of caffeine. During one of this nation’s many peaks – from the mid-1600s to the early 1700s – our streets were awash with thousands of coffee shops. These replaced taverns as the place to meet and [...]
Sir Charles Dunstone’s Freston Road Investment to bring US pizza chain MoD to UK after Five Guys success September 14, 2015 Sir Charles Dunstone has moved from backing burger joints to pizza chains after striking a joint venture agreement to bring US restaurant chain MOD Pizza to Britain. MoD, which stands for Made on Demand, allows customers to pile as many toppings as they want on their artisan-style pizza base for the same fixed price. It [...]
Mayfair Equity Partners leads race for Yo! Sushi in deal worth £100m September 13, 2015 THE RACE for Yo! Sushi is heating up after a new buyout firm run by former head of Lloyds’ private equity arm emerged as a frontrunner to buy the restaurant chain, in a deal valued at around £100m. Mayfair Equity Partners was founded earlier this year by Daniel Sasaki, who previously led Lloyds Banking Group’s [...]