Cafes and Coffee Shops
The latest news and updates on cafes and coffee shops, from 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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Oct- 2018 -10 October
Patisserie Valerie suspends CFO following ‘potential fraud’ discovery
High street bakery Patisserie Valerie has temporarily suspended trading and the company’s chief financial officer following a discovery of “potentially fraudulent” accounts. At 7.30am on 10 October, the company suspended its shares as it awaited clarification on its financial position. Patisserie’s directors were notified of “accounting irregularities” and therefore a…
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9 October
Latest Pret A Manger allergy victim-link identified
A second Pret A Manger customer who is believed to have died after an allergic reaction after eating a ‘super-veg rainbow flatbread’ at one of the coffee chain’s outlets has been named. Celia Marsh, 42, from Melksham, Wiltshire, died in December shortly after eating the flatbread, and her family said…
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3 October
Costa advert banned for ‘avocado criticism’
Costa has seen an advert banned after it suggested an avocado was a “poor breakfast choice” adding that those who wanted a decent breakfast should have a bacon roll or egg muffin from Costa. The radio advert announced that avocados would be “hard as rock for the first 18 days,…
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3 October
Pret A Manger announces it is to label all products following ‘baguette death’
Pret A Manger has announced it is to label all products after a teenager fell into cardiac arrest after eating a baguette which did not list all ingredients correctly. The company’s CEO Clive Schlee said he was “deeply sorry” when the company announced the labelling changes this morning (3 October).…
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Sep- 2018 -21 September
Food-to-go market growing three times as fast as on-premise spend
The food-to-go market has become one of the fastest growing segments of Britain’s out-of-home (OOH) foodservice industry, as Britons increasingly eat pre-prepared food and drink on-the-go. Latest figures from global information company, The NPD Group, showed that off-premise consumption (excluding delivery and drive thru) was growing while on-premise was shrinking.…
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11 September
Number of licensed F&B businesses drops by 3000 in a year
Britain has 3,116 fewer restaurants, pubs, bars and other licensed premises than 12 months ago, according to the latest Market Growth Monitor, from CGA and AlixPartners. The report showed there were 119,800 licensed sites across the country in June 2018 – a fall of 2.5% since June 2017. On average,…
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5 September
Mandatory calorie labelling could cause ‘serious burden’, warns UKHospitality
UKHospitality has warned that the introduction of inflexible mandatory calorie labelling could present a “serious burden” for hospitality businesses. The warning follows reports that the government is preparing the launch of a consultation on a requirement for businesses to provide calorie labelling on menus. The Department of Health is proposing…
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3 September
Mille Patisserie to open Paddington site
Mille Patisserie has announced it is to open a new Paddington site this month offering the mille crepes made famous in London by Kova Patisserie. The mille crepe consists of layers of crepe and creme patisserie stacked together to form a cake. Ingredients for the company’s chocolate, lemon, matcha, and…
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Aug- 2018 -31 August
Coca-Cola to acquire Costa Coffee from Whitbread for £3.9bn
Coca-Cola is to buy the coffee chain Costa from Whitbread in a £3.9bn deal. Whitbread, which acquired the brand in 1995 for £19m when it had only 39 outlets, had intended to spin off the chain as a separate business but the transaction was unanimously agreed by the Whitbread board…
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29 August
Bailiffs visited more than 200 firms daily over unpaid business rates
In the first year after the new business rates revaluation came into effect, councils sent bailiffs to more than 200 commercial properties everyday for unpaid rates. An investigation by real estate advisor Altus Group revealed that during 2017/18, over 81,000 business premises liable for rates were referred to bailiffs to…
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