Friday five: the week's top restaurant stories
- Steakhouse group Hawksmoor is looking to speed up the pace of its expansion as it eyes a sale. In an interview with London newspaper City AM, co-founder Will Beckett said the currently 13-strong group hopes to go from opening one or two restaurants a year to between two and three. The group has been growing steadily since the first Hawksmoor was launched on the Eastern edge of The City in 2006. In recent years, it has opened around one restaurant per year. Beckett says that Hawksmoor is focused on the US - where it already has two restaurants in New York and Chicago - but would not rule out opening further restaurants in the UK and exporting the brand to other countries should the right opportunities come up.
- The restaurant brands for the upcoming redevelopment of Fulham Football Club’s riverside stand have been announced. Located on the ground level of Fulham Pier, Riverside Market is billed as a ‘vibrant food experience with a multitude of individual gastronomy and beverage concepts’ with key tenants including Goila Butter Chicken; Base Face Pizza; and Tinie Tempah’s Raps. The second level of the development will be home to a ‘destination restaurant and brasserie’ that has yet to be announced. A boutique hotel and health spa concept will flank either end of Fulham Pier and the top of floor of the development will feature a terrace that only Fulham Football Club will have access to.
- Hostmore has abandoned its all-share acquisition of TGI Fridays in the US with the brand’s UK operations set to continue under new ownership. The board at Hostmore, parent company of TGI Fridays UK, abandoned the plans after the US group lost control of TGIF Funding, which holds legal title to the franchise agreement royalties and other various fees and revenue from intellectual property of the TGI Fridays business. Hostmore said this would compromise the control over the royalty stream of TGI Fridays and also potentially impair the future revenue of the business, which was central to the transaction. As a result, the acquisition is no longer being actively pursued, though both parties have left the door open for future discussions.
- Salt Bae’s London restaurant Nusr-Et Steakhouse has recorded a drop in turnover of over £4m from £13.6m in 2022 to £9.3m in 2023. The luxe Knightsbridge venue made a profit before tax of £1.7m, down from £3.3m in 2022. The business also reported a drop in EBITDA to £2.2m in 2023, compared to £3.9m the prior year. EBITDA declined from 29% to 23.7% of revenue.
- Restaurant groups including Burgerism, Kricket, Fat Hippo, Hawksmoor, JKS Restaurants, LSL Capital and Dishoom have been shortlisted in this year's R200 Awards. Groups have been shortlisted in categories this year that include Best New Opening, Innovation Award, Food-led Pub Group of the Year, and International Company of the Year. The awards also recognise smaller players with bandwidth to expand in categories including One to Watch, and Scalable Concept Award. The winners will be revealed at a special awards dinner being held at Hawksmoor Canary Wharf on 4 November.
For more of this week's headlines, click here.
