Insights Hub

LEISURE

Following recent difficulties Patisserie Holdings has announced that the café chain has collapsed into administration as it has been unable to renew its bank facilities. Administrators KPMG will close 70 outlets immediately with the loss of up to 900 jobs. The remaining 121 sites will continue to trade whilst looking for a buyer. Chairman Luke Johnson has personally extended an unsecured, interest free loan of £3m to help ensure the January wages are paid to all the staff.

Cambridge-based vegan restaurant Stem + Glory have opened their first site in London at the new St Barts development.  Founder, Louise Palmer-Masterton, hopes to open at least one site a year and believes there is scope for another London site and others across the UK. The London site which has 56 covers and features an open plan kitchen is a fusion of the two sites in Cambridge that opened in October 2016 and November 2017.

This month will see the first of Soho House & Co’s new 1950’s American-inspired budget motels opening in Buckland, Oxfordshire. Mollie’s Motel & Diner will offer 79 bedrooms with king-size beds, Egyptian cotton sheets and high-pressure rainforest showers as well as family and bunk bed options. Mollies Diner will serve American classic dishes, a children’s menu and drinks ranging from coffee to cocktails.  Further sites have already been earmarked in Manchester and Bristol.

US Coffee shop brand, Roasting Plant Coffee has opened its first UK site, the first outside the US, at Bridge House on London’s South Bank. Roasting Plant offers an immersive coffee concept that allows customers to watch the process of the coffee beans being produced from green bean through to the cup via an automated Javabot machine.  The brand has stores in New York, Detroit, Minneapolis, Denver and San Francisco. See a recent interview with UK CEO, Jamie Robertson here.

RETAIL

With a continued commitment to maintaining relevance, Marks and Spencer has been praised for its vegan retailing, launched an AI ‘Style Finder’ tool to its website and announced a trial launch of plastic-free produce aisles with onsite greengrocers.  Peta awarded the British retailer with its first ever “Vegan-Friendly High Street Retailer” award in recognition of its product offerings across their fashion and food ranges. Plant Kitchen offers over 50 vegan food dishes and they also offer 350 different styles of vegan footwear.  The “Style Finder” tool will allow shoppers to search for items in the menswear and womenswear ranges using images of similar items. AI technology pulls results which match to images uploaded by the customer. The retailer’s Tolworth branch in south-west London is trialling two aisles of fresh produce with trained greengrocers to help customers choose and weigh their products. ‘Best before’ date labels are also being removed.

Sports Direct founder Mike Ashley is believed to be in talks to rescue music chain HMV. The chain was founded in 1921 and currently has 125 stores employing 2,200 staff. They have entered administration for the second time in six years which will be overseen by KPMG.

PROPERTY  

Lendlease and Southwark Council have announced that Mercato Metropolitano will be the anchor tenant of the £2.3bn mixed-use regeneration project, Elephant Park in Elephant and Castle, with a 17,500 sq ft food production, dining and social space. MM Factory will have an urban production centre that will mill grains onsite to then be used to supply its other markets. Cooking classes and apprenticeships will also be offered to member of the local community.

Two months after announcing the closure of four House of Fraser stores located within the Intu centres in Lakeside, Essex, Gateshead, Norwich and Nottingham, Sports Direct has confirmed all four will remain open following “constructive discussions” with landlords.