Friday five: the week's top hospitality stories
- Andrew Sheridan and his business partner Sam Morgan have revealed how criminals have targeted them with the threat of posting fake bad reviews online. Attempts have been made to blackmail Sheridan and his business partners Sam and Emma Morgan with criminals demanding a payment of thousands of pounds or they would create thousands of fake one-star reviews. The criminals threatened the business through its WhatsApp booking service, demanding a payment of £2,000 to stop them from posting numerous negative reviews about their various restaurants.
- Pret A Manger dropped the bombshell that it is scrapping its 'too good to be true' five-coffees-a-day Club Pret subscription offer in favour of a more traditional discount model. From 3 September the coffee chain will change its Club Pret membership to offering a 50% discount on up to five barista-made drinks per day for £5 per month until 31 March 2025, then £10 per month thereafter. Currently, Club Pret members get five free coffees each day as well as a 20% discount on food for a subscription of £30 a month. “It was an innovative way to reconnect with our loyal customers and introduce Pret to tens of thousands of new ones, bringing customers back into our shops with an offer that almost seemed ‘too good to be true’. Four years and over a quarter of a billion coffees later, we have decided that it’s time to rethink how it works," says Clare Clough, Pret’s UK&I MD.
- Jason Atherton will reopen Pollen Street Social as a grill-focused bar and restaurant called Mary’s this autumn. The Mayfair restaurant will close on 31 July and will initially reopen as a pop-up on 16 August before a more permanent change in the new year. The site will house a version of Atherton’s The Blind Pig bar at the front of the restaurant, with Pollen Street Social’s chef’s counter being transformed into a burger bar and the remainder of the space becoming Mary’s. The kitchen will be led by Alex Parker, executive chef at Social Eating House. Atherton's Social Eating House in Soho will close at the end of this month after 11 years.
- Bristol-based operator Sandwich Sandwich has said it’s looking to challenge the likes of Pret and Subway as it prepares for the official launch of its debut London site this week. Joshua Kleiner, head of operations and marketing at Sandwich Sandwich, revealed that the group would be opening a second outpost in the capital before the end of the year, although is yet to confirm an exact location. The group will then open a ‘four or five more’ sites in London next year before turning its attention to expanding both across the UK and internationally.
- Zero-hour contracts and ‘fire and rehire’ practises will both be banned under the Government’s new Employment Rights Bill, which it says will ‘introduce a new deal for working people’. Announced as part of the King’s Speech, the bill will be introduced during the first 100 days of the new parliament and is described by the Government as being ‘the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation’. Under the legislation, zero-hour contracts will be banned with all workers instead required to receive a contract that reflects the number of hours they regularly work. All workers will also be entitled to ‘reasonable notice’ of any changes in shift with proportionate compensation for any shifts cancelled or curtailed. ‘Fire and rehire’ and ‘fire and replace’ practises will also be abolished, which will be done by ‘reforming the law to provide effective remedies and replacing the previous Government’s statutory code’.
