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.

Apr- 2022 -

11 April

Cafes and Coffee Shops

Pret to expand into Ireland with Carebrook Partnership

Pret A Manger is set to expand into the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland for the first time after an agreement of terms were reached with franchise partner Carebrook Partnership Ltd. Through the partnership, 20 Pret shops will be established across the island of Ireland over the next decade,…
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7 April

News

Gusto partners with PayCaptain to strengthen ‘people-centric agenda’

Gusto Italian, the casual dining restaurant group, has announced a new partnership with PayCaptain, which will further strengthen its employee proposition and “people-centric agenda”. It said Gusto employees will benefit from greater flexibility over pay, savings and pension planning, as well as having the opportunity to access pay on-demand. The…
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4 April

Restaurants

Wagamama reopens all airport restaurants

Wagamama has announced that it is to reopen all of its airport restaurant locations in order to “meet the demand for international holidays”. The airport restaurants are the last to reopen after the pandemic closed all restaurants following the national lockdown two years ago. It said this final phase of…
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1 April

Government

VAT rise to result in double-digit price increases, UKH warns

VAT in hospitality will rise from 12.5% to 20% on 1 April 2022, which UKH said “will result in double-digit price increases for consumers as operators struggle to survive” as the sector is forecasting cost inflation running at 18%. Recent business surveys show the industry is facing a 95% hike…
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Mar- 2022 -

28 March

Cafes and Coffee Shops

Starbucks UK revenue soars 35% in FY21

Starbucks has announced that UK revenues rose by 35% to £328m in the full-year ending 3 October 2021, largely driven by the recovery of sales in both company owned stores and franchised stores following the pandemic. Profit before tax hit £13.3m, up from a £41m loss reported in FY20, despite…
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24 March

People

Itsu appoints new CFO

Itsu has appointed Greg Thorp as its new group CFO after a successful 16 years at Pret a Manger. Thorp joins the leadership team alongside CEO Ganan Kanagathurai and founder Julian Metcalfe. Ganan Kanagathurai, retail CEO, said: “I am thrilled to have hired someone with the experience and gravitas to…
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15 March

Restaurants

Acquisitions drive Nightcap revenues to surge 700%

Nightcap has reported a 700% increase in revenues to £15.8m during the 26-week period ended 26 December 2021 boosted by a series of acquisitions. The group also revealed like-for-like revenues increased 22.4% compared with the same period in 2019. Excluding the ‘Plan B’ period, group revenue increased by 28.3% on…
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14 March

Restaurants

Restaurant insolvencies rise to 354 in Q4

Restaurant insolvencies jumped by a fifth to 354 in the last quarter of 2021, rising from 296 in Q3, according to UHY Hacker Young, the national accountancy group. UHY Hacker Young said “despite the end of coronavirus restrictions, the sector faces considerable challenges”. The invasion of Ukraine and resulting sanctions…
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14 March

Food and Drink

Hospitality managed groups’ sales up 3% in February

Managed groups’ like-for-like sales in February were 3% higher than in February 2019, according to the Coffer CGA Business Tracker, produced by CGA in partnership with The Coffer Group and RSM. It revealed the lifting of all Covid-19 restrictions helped Britain’s managed restaurant, pub and bar groups to raise sales…
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8 March

Restaurants

Only 20% of hospitality firms track food waste, survey finds

A joint survey of leading hospitality operators, representing more than 2,300 sites, has revealed that only one fifth of sector businesses are currently tracking whether their food waste comes from preparation, spoilage or plate waste. The survey, conducted by Fourth, the global software provider for the hospitality, retail and leisure…
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