As we’ve seen, preparing for the festive season early on is vital if you want it to go smoothly for your business, impress your customers and ultimately keep tills ringing.
Strong performances across the areas of beer, food and accommodation at Shepherd Neame has led to the brewer, pub and hotel operator experiencing a pre-tax profit rise of almost 40 per cent to £9.1m.
What do Elvis Presley, The Mad Hatter and a nautical sailor all have in common? Aside from all being popular choices at a fancy dress party, all three have formed the inspirations for some of the quirkier themes and events that hospitality businesses...
Legendary French chef Pierre Koffmann picked up the prestigious Chefs’ Chef accolade at last night’s AA Hospitality Awards in an evening which also saw Antonio Carluccio, Hibiscus and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal take home some of the top gongs.
National tourist board VisitEngland has issued a new set of guidelines for the hospitality and tourism industries in a publication entitled ‘The Evening & Night Time Economy’, which encourages businesses to make the most of the night time economy...
Philip Britton of UKinbound advises hoteliers, restaurateurs and publicans on how they can make the most of the inbound tourist market and ensure tourists are heading their way when they visit the UK.
Independent hotel group Menzies Hotels has unveiled a new look and vision across its portfolio, investing around £7m into a variety of redevelopment projects for some of its 13 four-star properties.
Rumble in the Kitchen, the boxing event set up by Galvin at Windows general manager Fred Sirieix, has raised more than £55k for charitable programme Galvin's Chance.
The end of the Jubilee and Olympic summer can mean just one thing – Christmas is coming! As festive thinking caps are donned to work out how to unwrap seasonal profits, what should hospitality operators be doing to plan for the change from gold medals...
Brakspear has made its sixth purchase since returning to the acquisition trail earlier this year by buying The Malt House pub in Fulham from Spirit Pub Company which will now be let to Jolly Fine Restaurants - the company owned by Michelin-starred chef...
The Black Swan pub in Cheshire has re-opened after a six-month, £500k refurb with the new owner targeting female pub-goers with the food-led venue which she hopes will be the first of a number of sites.
Single sales of hotels in London continue to help the capital lead the hotel investment league in Europe but the market remains in decline with economic uncertainty likely to prevent rises in transaction values until at least next year.
Advertising executive Edwin Chan has announced plans to open a French wine bar and restaurant in London next month following the success of his first venue in the French city of Lyon.
With branded national restaurant chains increasingly recognising the potential of high-footfall transport hubs, Network Rail’s latest train station F&B sales results prove that the areas are now becoming eating, drinking and dining destinations in...
Bar Sport, the American sports bar model founded by Scott Murray, is looking for more franchisees to help grow the business following a year of sporting success for Great Britain.
Apero, a modern Mediterranean restaurant inspired by the Italian tradition of the aperitivo drinks, has opened this week within the recently re-launched Ampersand Hotel in Harrington Road, South Kensington.
Hotels in London recorded an increase in room yield by almost 50 per cent last month as a result of year-on-year room rates rocketing up from £110.22 to £165.05 a night, with occupancy levels remaining above 80 per cent for the entire period of the London...
Twenty-two members of the industry are set to battle it out in the boxing ring later this week for Rumble in the Kitchen, a charity event designed to raise funds for the into work programme Galvin's Chance.
Simply Indian, a new 60-cover restaurant and bar serving traditional curry house favourites along with a strong fish and seafood offering, is opening in Wadhurst, East Sussex, today.
Hilton Worldwide has signed a franchise agreement with RB Hotels to open a 171-bedroom Hilton hotel at Southampton’s Ageas Bowl - England’s latest test match venue and home of Hampshire County Cricket Club.
Fernando and Kristy Stovell, the former joint head chefs of London's Cuckoo Club, have transformed the Cloche Hat restaurant on the rural outskirts of Chobham into Stovell’s, a new contemporary European restaurant and bar taking inspiration from...
D&D London's chairman and chief executive Des Gunewardena today reported an 'encouraging' performance at his London restaurants after profit across the group rose 4 per cent to £4.2m despite a 'continuing backdrop of economic uncertainty'.
Privately-owned gastropub group The Jam Tree has continued its expansion plans by opening its third venue in as many years last week with a new site in Clapham; it joins two existing sites in Chelsea and Kensington.
With the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games now over, hospitality businesses in the capital have had time to reflect on event's financial repercussions. BigHospitality has spoken to three of these businesses to find out how successful their...
The British Larder in Bromeswell, Suffolk has been named Best Food Pub in the Great British Pub Awards 2012 and co-founder Ross Pike has revealed the award has helped drive interest from potential investors in the business.
Pub operator J D Wetherspoon has become the latest hospitality business to warn of the possible sales growth 'hangover' following a summer of sport, the Olympics and headline events.
The chef-patron of two-Michelin-starred Bo Innovation in Hong Kong and self-styled ‘Demon Chef’ is launching a sibling restaurant, Bo London, in Mayfair later this year.
The new managing director for Llangoed Hall, the former Von Essen hotel which went into administration last year, has outlined plans to restore the 23-bedroom hotel to its former glory.
The final two hotels in the Von Essen portfolio, Ston Easton Park in Somerset and Sharrow Bay in Cumbria, have been acquired by former BBC ‘Dragon’ James Caan for a combined sum of £4.5m.
A group of 57 residents in the Devon village of Cadeleigh have become the latest community group to save their local by clubbing together to buy the Cadelieigh Arms pub and are now searching for a tenant to take on the business.
Global hotel operator Accor has opened the first hotel in the UK under its upscale Pullman brand by completing the conversion of the former Novotel in St. Pancras, London.
The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) is today raising a glass to the 40th anniversary of its flagship publication the Good Beer Guide which reports that there are now just over 1,000 breweries operational across the UK - the highest number for over 70 years.
Following the successful joint sale of the Royal Bath hotel in Bournemouth and the Daresbury Park Hotel in Warrington, De Vere Group is ploughing on with the offload of its non-core hotel, with the University Arms hotel in Cambridge being placed on the...
Combined like-for-like sales for pub and restaurant groups inside the M25 increased by 5 per cent in August, but businesses outside of London saw a much more modest uplift of just 1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
French restaurant chain Le Bistrot Pierre is set to open its first in the south when it opens a venue in Plymouth next year and has revealed a list of target cities with three openings planned next year.
Service standards in London’s restaurants have been labelled as a ‘weak link’ by Tim Zagat, with his eponymous restaurant guide revealing that 73 per cent of all customer complaints relate to the front-of-house.
With forthcoming international openings Hakkasan is poised to become one of the biggest high-end restaurant groups in the world. Yet it’s London where the real excitement is going to be, as chief executive Niall Howard explains.
The Wolseley all-day café-restaurant in London’s Piccadilly has been named the capital's most popular restaurant for the second year running by eating-out guide Zagat.
As The Clink Charity prepares to open its second prison restaurant, this time on the grounds of HMP Cardiff, chief executive Chris Moore has revealed the charity has plans to open two restaurants every year until 2016 with Greater London next on the horizon.
Despite an on-going tough economic backdrop, an increasing number of hospitality businesses across the UK are partnering with charities to raise money through menu donations and fundraising events.
Quality ‘food-on-the-go’ has become the key area of growth for the UK’s eating out market, with concepts consistently emerging in transport hubs, shopping centres and busy high street locations as consumers are looking to eat where they want, when they...
Simon Rogan has revealed he is to take over the running of his local pub - The Pig & Whistle in Cartmel - which is located within walking distance of his flagship restaurant L'Enclume and sister venue Rogan & Company.
Following the completion of the first phase of development, Clarenco now plans to open 52 new bedroom suites in Stanbrook Abbey by autumn of next year as part of ambitious plans for the former monastery and the entire portfolio of hotels and exclusive...
The injection of one million pounds of Scottish Government money into food and drink firms has been welcomed by hospitality industry bodies and businesses as the nation gears up for a series of showcase events in 2014.
Gideon Joffe, the 32-year-old son of Giraffe founders Russel and Juliette Joffe opened his first restaurant – MonkeyNuts – in Crouch End, North London nine years ago. The restaurateur went on to open Chez Bob in Belsize Park seven years later and he will...
Small business owners in the hospitality industry refused lending by the banks are being urged to make use of the appeals process after it was revealed that almost half of all small businesses have had loan applications rejected in the last two years.
Jonathan Kaye, chief executive of the Prezzo restaurant group, has told BigHospitality an increasing percentage of its future openings will be under the Chimichanga Mexican restaurant brand.
