Comment
The latest comment and opinion, from industry figures and the business journalists at Catering Today. We bring you the latest on what’s happening in the restaurants, bars and catering industry, with exclusive stories, analysis, best practice and industry comment.
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Jan- 2020 -31 January
The whole Amazon thing is getting scary now
The ‘growth of online retail’ is now so proverbial that the phrase itself is nearly redundant. Is anyone surprised to learn this morning that Amazon has absolutely rampaged through the Christmas retail season, while scores of well-known bricks-and-mortar retailers reported a torrid set of financial results for the same period? No, me…
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30 January
Dining with the stars: a definitive list of celebrity-owned haunts
WHO: Ed Sheeran WHAT: Bertie Blossoms WHERE: Notting Hill Last August, Ed Sheeran shocked his fans by announcing an 18-month hiatus from music. It seems the singer has found a new calling, because it was only a month later that he launched his very own restaurant, Bertie Blossoms. The eatery,…
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29 January
British Airways gets flighty and Starbucks smells the coffee over coronavirus
The business response to the coronavirus situation, which appears to be developing into a serious crisis, continues apace today. British Airways today announced that it was suspending all flights between the UK and Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus originally broke out. In a statement it said: “We have…
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28 January
Coronavirus dampens markets but boosts mask producers
Some years ago Bill Gates was asked in an interview what future scenario it was that kept him awake at night. To the surprise of the interviewer, he did not say climate change, or financial collapse, or nuclear war. He said he most afraid of the next major pandemic, in…
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27 January
Surplus fresh produce trends for 2020
January gets a bad rep. Let’s face it, the excitement of all the preceding festivities becomes a distant memory, the dark mornings and evenings seem to go on forever and we have to scroll through reems of diary to locate the next time there could, maybe, might, possibly be a…
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23 January
Asos bounces back from tricky period
Back in July last year Retail Sector reported that Asos was having problems. It had issued a profit warning, suggesting profits were likely to be about one-third of what was originally anticipated. It was an interesting moment in the retail world, because the narrative for the whole of the last…
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22 January
Ted Baker hanging by a thread amid £58m balance sheet black hole
If you have shares in Ted Baker, you are probably not having a good morning. The price has tanked by almost 7% after news broke that the fashion brand has found a £58m black hole in its accounts. There’s being a few hundred thousand or a few million short, but…
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22 January
The 2020 trends that caterers should add to their menus
The annual trends survey conducted among New Covent Garden Market’s traders has predicted that 2020 will see flavoursome fruits, a focus on British and a new wave of meat alternatives become diners most sought after requests on menus across the country. According to Stan Gulas at market wholesaler Oui Chef,…
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22 January
Trends that will shape food service in 2020
After a tough couple of years that have seen major chains falling like dominos, the foodservice industry last year saw the faintest glimmer of recovery. But it is still growing at under 1% per year, and considering the population of the UK is growing at around 0.6% a year, that…
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21 January
It’s not me, it’s you.
You hate the sight of each other, but it’s a song and dance you’ve become so familiar with. You’ve never known anything different. Each day starts and ends the same. You always meet each other in the same place. It’s all just getting a little monotonous. We’re of course talking…
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