News
The latest industry news 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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Aug- 2018 -13 August
Lush to offer free coffee
Cosmetics retailer Lush is to offer free coffee in an attempt to cut down on single use coffee cups. Customers in Lush’s Soho store will be eligible for the coffee if they bring along a reusable cup between 7am and 3pm in the four weeks commencing 14 August. The coffees…
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13 August
Star Pubs & Bars hires Greene King’s Paul Hunter as soft drinks buyer
Star Pubs and Bars has appointed Paul Hunter as its first dedicated soft drinks buyer as the group works to boost its soft drinks category support. To take advantage of the growing popularity of soft drinks, the group is also making Coca-Cola European Partners (CCEP) its official category partner, installing…
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10 August
Wagamama ‘outperforms competitors’ consistently for four years
Restaurant chain Wagamama has said it “traded ahead of the competition consistently for over four years (220 weeks)” as its latest financial results showed a 7.4% like-for-like sales growth in the year to 29 April 2018. The group’s turnover increased 11.1% to £71.1m in Q4 and it reported 7.7% UK…
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10 August
Stonegate Pub Company invests £205,000 in pub garden
Stonegate Pub Company has announced it has invested £205,000 in the pub garden at its Minories pub in London’s Tower Hill. The refurbishment has seen the garden double in size with the new area able to seat 200 people. The land the garden has expanded into was previously out of…
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10 August
Villandry restaurant fails to find investor leading to closure of all London restaurants
Villandry has announced it has closed all of its London restaurants after it failed to find a buyer and rent doubled at the two sites. BDO were called in as administrators for the company after it failed to find investors to support rising rent and business rates. The chain’s outlet…
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9 August
AccorHotels reports ‘success’ with UK urban gardens initiative
AccorHotels has reported successful growth in its sustainable food initiative, with 26 of the group’s UK properties now containing an urban vegetable garden. According to the brand the garden at Novotel London Waterloo produced enough pesticide-free salad last year to supply the green salad bar for 28 days in total,…
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9 August
Gino D’Acampo to open new Thorpe Park restaurant
Celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo has announced a new ‘My Restaurant’ at the rebranded Thorpe Park development, The Springs in Leeds. The 150-cover restaurant will include a coffee and deli bar where guests can eat in or take away from breakfast onwards, a prosecco bar and alfresco terrace complete with games…
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9 August
McDonald’s trials luxury restaurant concept
McDonald’s UK will be trialling a luxury restaurant concept to celebrate the national roll-out of The Signature Collection, the gourmet-style burger range. The concept, which will be piloted at its High Street Kensington site, opened for online reservations on 8 August, giving customers a limited two-day window to book a…
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9 August
Meatliquor to open new Battersea restaurant
Meatliquor has announced it will be opening a new restaurant on Northcote Road in Battersea. Battersea residents have previously been able to order the chain’s food through a Deliveroo Editions ‘dark kitchen’ in the area. Meatliquor said it saw good sales on its well-known menu items such as the Dead…
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9 August
Be At One pub criticised over white faces on historic photo
A Soho Be At One pub has been forced to remove a photograph from its walls after patrons objected to an edited image which superimposed the faces of exclusively white investors over those of black drinkers in the original. The original historic photo, which has hung in the pub for…
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