Insights Hub

LEISURE

Blackpool Pleasure Beach’s multi-million-pound regeneration has seen the opening of the £12m Boulevard Hotel. The site will offer 120 rooms including two park view suites and either coastal suites, a 90-seat signature restaurant The Beachside and the Shoreside Conference Centre which will cater for events for up to 200 delegates including weddings.

Brazilian barbecue chain, Cabana went into administration late last week, but it is understood that restaurateur Jamie Barber’s Hush Brasseries, another of Barber’s group, has bought five of the restaurants out of administration.  All five London sites, that employ 156 people, will continue to trade but the Southampton, Manchester and Leeds sites have closed.

RETAIL

High-street fashion retailer New Look has launched around 500 footwear and accessory pieces as part of its partnership with The Vegan Society. The registered products are free from any animal derived components including fabrics, threads, glues, dyes and treatments. The collection is already available online and will be in store from September.

Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct has closed eight of the Jack Wills stores despite having urged their landlords to slash rents of their ‘worst-performing’ stores to help them keep as many of the portfolio open. The stores that will close are: Derby, Reigate, Marlborough, Rock, Durham, Kingston, Tunbridge Wells and St Albans, it is hoped that staff will be redeployed elsewhere in the group.

Fashion retailer Ted Baker has signed a new five-year deal with Next to produce and sell Ted Baker childrenswear from spring next year. The new deal replaces the existing licensing deal with Debenhams that will end in February. The new collections of clothing, shoes and accessories for children and babies will be sold through Next’s retail and wholesale channels as well as through Ted Baker’s own website.

PROPERTY

In a £2.7bn deal, Suffolk-based brewer Greene King has been bought by a subsidiary of CK Asset Holdings valuing the business at approximately £4.6bn. Chaired by Victor Li, part of Hong Kong’s richest family, CKA’s global portfolio includes London’s Chelsea Waterfront and UBS’s UK headquarters at 5 Broadgate. It is believed the deal has followed the increased popularity of the Greene King IPA in China after President Xi Jinping was pictured drinking it back in 2015.

Lincolnshire Co-op’s large-scale regeneration of Lincoln’s City Centre has attracted some major retailers to its mixed-use scheme, The Cornhill Quarter. Neon Sheep has taken a 1,711 sq ft space; Doughnott’s 1,600 sq ft; Seasalt 2,500 sq ft and énergie Fitness7,304 sq ft. They join 200 Degrees, HMV, Cosy Club, Moss Bros, Thomas Cook, Lakeland amongst other and it is understood Everyman Cinema and The Botanist will join the third phase of the scheme.

Corum Asset Management has bought Gastons Wood Retail Park in Basingstoke from Aberdeen Standard Investments for £20.7m. The retail park is currently fully let to Lidl, Dunelm, Go Outdoors and The Range.

Red Oak Taverns, who currently operate 179 sites across the UK, are to acquire the pub portfolio from Wadworth & Company giving them 18 new sites. The deal follows a £10m loan from OakNorth that is part of the agreed refinancing deal agreed last year.