Friday Five: the week's top news
We round-up the top hospitality stories you might have missed this week
- Carluccio's is actively seeking a buyer for its 102-strong Italian restaurant business. The Financial Times reported that the company has approached private equity groups and turnaround specialists over a possible sale. It comes after pre-tax profits at the chain fell from £5.2m to £982,000 in the year to September 2016.
- Jamie Oliver has defended his company CEO against reports that he knows "nothing about restaurants" and is "destroying" the chef's business empire. The Times reported that since Paul Hunt, who is also Oliver's brother-in-law, was appointed in 2014 staff had been "desperate" to leave. Oliver dismissed the claims as "untrue" and said Hunt had "radically transformed" the company for the better.
- Meanwhile Oliver's wider business has begun working with "transformation partner" KBS Albion to help develop a "deeper understanding" of its customer needs. The company, which will close 12 of its Jamie's Italian sites this year, is also co-designing "new digital products and services" through the partnership.
- Peter Sanchez-Iglesias is teaming up with craft brewery Left Handed Giant to launch a restaurant at its upcoming brewpub in Bristol. The chef, who is behind the city's Michelin-starred Casamia and Paco Tapas, will run a development kitchen on the first floor of the site and develop menus for the brewpub.
- The founders of Bundobust and Mowgli Street Food are among the new entrants in the NRB Top Fifty power list 2018. The full rankings, which recognise the most influential operators in the North of England, also included chefs Michael O'Hare and Gary Usher.
For more of this week's news, click here.
