Insights Hub

LEISURE

Roux Scholarship winner Frederick Forster is to design a menu for a new bowl food restaurant concept that have plans to open three sites in London this year.  Sow will open its first site in June in Soho and will then be targeting two further “high footfall London locations” this year with intentions to explore further growth.

Harts Group has announced its fifth and final restaurant signing at Coal Drops Yard.  Parrillan, sister restaurant to the Barrafina tapas bar brand, will open a 100-cover site that offers diners their own mini charcoal grills. The restaurant joins The Coal Office, Vermuteria, Barrafina and The Drop.

French patisserie/brasserie concept Café De Pierre has taken over concessions within Debenhams stores replacing Patisserie Valerie. They have already taken over the concessions in London’s Oxford Street store as well as Westfield London, Wandsworth, Stevenage, Chelmsford, Telford and Liverpool. This will extend to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Dublin and Cardiff. The company has employed 150 of Patisserie Valerie’s former employees and hopes to employ a further 200 of the staff that will be made redundant in the coming months.

RETAIL 

Penny Petroleum, 6^th largest independent forecourt operator, has announced a deal that will see a further eight of its Scottish convenience stores converted to Spar. Spar currently occupies two of its 52 forecourts but will increase this to 10 by the end of the year, all of which will be supplied by CJ Lang & Son Ltd.

Majestic Wine has announced a revamp that it will see the renaming of the business to Naked Wines as well as the closure of some of its stores. They plan to raise capital to expand and concentrate on its online business.  Naked Wines has been its online division since the purchase in 2015 from founder Rowan Gormley who then became CEO of the group.

Following comments from the CMA that the £12bn deal could be blocked, Sainsbury’s and Asda have said they would sell between 125 and 150 supermarkets, a number of convenience stores and some petrol stations if they are allowed to merge. They have also vowed £1bn in price cuts and Sainsbury’s said it would cap fuel profits for five years.

British global travel company, Thomas Cook, is to close 21 stores across the UK as part of a wider restructuring which is likely to lead to around 120 job losses. The closures form part of an ongoing programme to streamline its network in response to changing customer behaviour with almost two thirds of its bookings now made online. 

PROPERTY 

The latest phase of the £1.2bn Bolton town centre regeneration plan has taken a significant step forward with Beijing Construction Engineering Group International partnering with Midia and Bolton Regeneration Limited.  LBR will work with Bolton Council to bring a £250m redevelopment programme that will include new proposals for Crompton Place Shopping Centre as well as the surrounding area being converted in to a new retail, leisure, office and residential destination.

Cardiff’s old Post Office building is to be restored into a luxury hotel funded by Legal & General in partnership with Welsh Rugby Union and Rightacres Property. The Westgate Hotel will have 165 bedrooms as well as two restaurants, a rooftop spa with outside Jacuzzi and a ballroom for 400 guests. The building is a landmark property that opened in 1897 as part of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations.