Friday Five: the week's top news
- UKHospitality has written to energy regulator Ofgem urging it to penalise bad practice by energy suppliers and to compel them to renegotiate the worst deals. With energy support set to be significantly reduced from 1 April, the trade body is asking the regulator to tackle what it says is ‘the reckless behaviour’ of energy suppliers that are offering rates well above wholesale prices, as well as raising standing charges, demanding large deposits, and, in some cases, refusing to work with hospitality. It is calling for Ofgem to publish the outcome of its inquiry into the non-domestic market as soon as possible and ‘name and shame’ the businesses considered to have acted in bad faith. All examples of bad practice should be penalised and businesses able to renegotiate or cancel terms, and be able to seek compensation where appropriate, it says.
- Gaucho has announced a further two openings slated for the first half of 2023, including its first outpost in Wales, following what it describes as a 'record breaking' trading year. The Argentinian steakhouse brand, which is part of the Martin Williams-run Rare Restaurants group, will open a huge 220-cover site on Bridge Street in Cardiff in May. It will follow the launch of the group's first site in the North-East in March, located on Pilgrim Street in Newcastle. Earlier this week it was also reported that Gaucho would open its first London opening in more than a decade this summer having secured the former Wahlburgers restaurant on James Street in Covent Garden.
- Taiwanese restaurant group BAO has launched a new app that will ‘pioneer the digital restaurant experience’ as it looks to bridge the gap between on and offline. Launching on 20 January to coincide with the Chinese lunar new year, the app gives users the opportunity to select their favourite BAO character and explore the ‘BAOverse’. The BAOverse is the first app from Not in Game, the new hospitality tech platform from Ken Kirton of design studio HATO and BAO co-founder Shing Tat Chung. The BAO app seeks to game-ify the restaurant experience, with users able to earn the digital currency of BAOcoin, and unlock new levels to receive secret perks and upgraded benefits which translate into real life experiences.
- Revolution Bars Group is closing a number of its sites on Mondays and Tuesdays through January and into February to help manage its energy usage. In its latest trading update, the group, which operates the Revolution and Revolución de Cuba brands, describes the move as one of a number of mitigating actions being undertaken as the it revises down its profit forecast for the year. While pre-booked party revenue in the Christmas trading period (five weeks to 31 December 2022) was up 10.3% on 2019, representing 'an all time like-for-like (LFL) sales record' for the group, walk-in revenue was lower than in previous years with a consequential impact on sales. Group LFLs for the Christmas trading period, when compared to the same period in 2019, were up 9%.
- Managed hospitality groups enjoyed their best December trading in three years, the latest Coffer CGA Business Tracker reveals — but sales remain well below pre-Covid levels in real terms. The Tracker — produced by CGA by NielsenIQ in partnership with The Coffer Group and RSM UK — shows like-for-like December sales across Britain’s leading managed pub, bar and restaurant groups sales were 15% ahead of December 2021, when festive trading was hit by concerns about the Omicron variant of Covid. However, sales were only 2% ahead of December 2019, and after adjustments for double-digit inflation, remain significantly behind pre-pandemic levels.#
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