20/08/2024 12:46:00
The UK's inflation rate has risen for the first time this year, official figures show. Overall prices rose by 2.2% in the year to July, slightly above the Bank of England's target of 2% where the rate had been since May, reports BBC News. A rise was widely predicted and is due to prices of gas and electricity falling by less than they did a year before. The increase is also less than many economists had expected. The latest figures mean that prices are now rising faster across the UK than in previous months, but still at a slower pace than in 2022 and 2023. The Bank of England expects inflation to go up to 2.75% in the coming months before falling below 2% next year.
Over the weekend Northwest multiple operator, Blind Tiger Inns, opened its 20th pub, Grey Man in Daisy Hill, Greater Manchester, following a joint £150,000 refurbishment. The leasehold is Blind Tiger Inn's 19th with Star Pubs, reports Hospitality and Catering News. The investment has seen the dated pub transformed into a premium local specialising in sports and entertainment. The Blind Tiger Inns estate consists of community wet led locals and town / city centre sites within an hour and a half of the company's head office in Chorley.
The total number of licensed pubs, bars, restaurant, clubs and hotels in the UK has risen quarter on quarter for the first time in two years in a new sign of a revival for the embattled hospitality sector, the Evening Standard reports. An industry survey shows there 99,207 licensed premises in June, up 462, or 0.5%, since March, according to the latest Hospitality Market Monitor from CGA compiled by NIQ and AlixPartners. Although only a modest increase, the rise represents the first bounce in the sector since the start of the cost-of-living crisis and the great surge in costs that sent so many operators to the wall. It is also only the third quarterly rise since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Despite the revival the sector remains far smaller than before the pandemic with total sites total sites still 13.8% below the pre-COVID figure of March 2020. The casual dining sector was particularly badly hit over the last four years with site numbers down by almost a quarter and a closure rate of just over one per day.
PPHE Hotel Group has been granted planning permission for a 186-room hotel on Westminster Bridge Road, London. The midscale concept will be hospitality group's fifth in London's Waterloo area. The hospitality real estate group is set to build a 15-storey design-led midscale concept in the South Bank area as part a mixed-use development. The site will also feature two floors of office and light industrial floorspace as well as an all-day dining bar and café on the ground floor. PPHE purchased the site for £12m in 2019 and it is currently working on detailed designs for the project, says The Caterer.
Heartwood Collection, the hospitality group formerly known as Brasserie Bar Co, has acquired two more sites from Whitbread Plc, says Pub & Bar. As it continues its fast expansion programme, Heartwood has purchased The George & Dragon in Marlow and The Red Lion in Stratford upon Avon. The acquisitions follow its recent buy of The Manor Inn, Godalming, again from Whitbread. The sale from Whitbread coincides with its plans to slash its restaurant estate by over 200 venues. Both properties will undergo multi-million-pound refurbishments, with The George & Dragon becoming Heartwood's seventh pub with rooms and scheduled to reopen in 2025. The pubs join the seven other sites already confirmed by Heartwood for the next 12 months.
JKS Restaurants has announced that Ambassadors Clubhouse will open on Tuesday 20th August. The latest venture will celebrate food, drink, music and culture from the region of Punjab, reports Hospitality and Catering News. The interior will take some inspiration from the abandoned party mansions of Northern India. Designed by North End Design, the restaurant will nod to a time of opulence and celebration in these mansions. Detailed stencil and paint work is polarised against bright, classic fabrics and original artwork from Punjabi artists.
Albert's Schloss co-founders are set to launch Detroit pizza concept, says MCA Insight. Detroit Slims will open on Manchester's Oxford Road this autumn, with plans to expand the quick-service pizza restaurant concept nationwide...