Demand

Understand what’s driving, or dampening, customer demand across restaurants, pubs, bars, cafés, and contract catering. Our focused reporting features dining trends, footfall patterns, booking behaviour, menu shifts, delivery and takeaway volumes, and the wider economic factors impacting consumer spend in hospitality. Whether you’re adapting to shifting weekday trade, reacting to seasonal fluctuations, or planning promotional strategies, this archive offers data-driven insights to help operators, chefs, and F&B leaders align operations with real-time market dynamics.

Mar- 2024 -

7 March

Restaurants

The Guinea Grill reopens following expansion

Young’s pub, The Guinea Grill in Mayfair, has reopened its doors following an expansion of the pub to create additional dining space and two new private dining rooms. Located on Bruton Place, the pub has increased its ground-floor dining area by an additional 60 covers, whilst upstairs is now home…
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5 March

Food and Drink

Greggs profits and sales soar

Greggs has reported pre-tax profits of £188.3m for the 52 weeks ended 30 December 2023, compared with £148.3m from the previous year. Its sales also increased 19.6% to £1.8bn and its underlying profit before tax excluding exceptional income was up 13.1% to £167.7m. The group opened a “record” 220 new…
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Feb- 2024 -

13 February

Pubs and Bars

Drinks sales drop for fourth straight week

Drinks sales in Britain’s pubs and bars have dropped 0.6% for the seven days ended 3 February, a fourth successive week of decline, with train strikes adding to the challenges facing operators. Footfall was also hit by rolling train strikes, which contributed to year-on-year drops in sales of 11% on…
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Jan- 2024 -

31 January

Pubs and Bars

Incipio Group revenues hit record £26.4m amid bumper Xmas

Incipio Group has reported that like-for-like sales rose 66% on the same period last year, contributing to a “record” year in sales of £26.4m after it experienced its strongest ever month of trading in December 2023. The company, which operates hospitality venues including Pergola on the Wharf, The Libertine and…
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23 January

Cafes and Coffee Shops

Creams Cafe reveals record festive trading

Creams Cafe has announced that it saw record trading over the festive period with like-for-like in-cafe sales up 5.8% in December against the same period in 2022. The company also revealed that its delivery sales experienced an uplift with an increase in sales of 2.5%. The year-on-year growth comes following…
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19 January

Food and Drink

Market Halls reports record festive period

Market Halls has revealed that its like-for-like sales were up 55% in December, a record for the company in the festive period. The company stated that sales were boosted by large corporate bookings, a high-profile appearance on BBC’s MasterChef: The Professionals and an extensive Christmas campaign. The campaign offered a…
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18 January

Features

‘It’s everyone’s responsibility’: are 50% plant-based menus the future for restaurants?

This year is the 10th anniversary of Veganuary, I’m curious to know your opinion on it. How has the trend evolved in 10 years? I think plant based food has developed enormously in the last 10 years, and I think the rise of vegan restaurants has helped enormously with that.…
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5 January

Awards & Events

Culinary Association of Wales launches Green Chef Challenge

The Culinary Association of Wales has launched the Green Chef Challenge, a brand new competition to find the best green chef team in the UK. The final of the Green Chef Challenge, sponsored by Compass Cymru, will be held at the Welsh International Culinary Championships (WICC), which will take place…
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Dec- 2023 -

18 December

Food and Drink

Hackney Gelato secures £1.3m investment

Hackney Gelato has secured a £1.3m follow-on investment from venture capital trust Pembroke VCT to fuel global expansion. The new funding will support increased production, recruitment into the team and a consumer marketing drive. Hackney Gelato is also targeting an expansion into new international markets and further growth in the…
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13 December

Comment

How digitisation across the restaurant sector is set to evolve in 2024

As we reflect on the last year, it’s fair to say that the restaurant industry has continued to go through unprecedented digital transformation, as innovation in the sector accelerates. While these changes have presented disruptions and challenges, they have also provided restaurants with the opportunity to get creative and find…
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