Friday five: the week's top restaurant stories
- Suffolk's The Unruly Pig has been named the UK’s top gastropub in the Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs list 2024. The East Anglian institution regained the number one spot having previously held it in 2022. Last year’s number one The Parkers Arms in Lancashire, which played host to this year’s awards ceremony, held earlier this week, was ranked at number seven on the list, with The Cornish Arms in Tavistock and The Mariners in Rock placed at numbers two and three respectively.
- Compass Group has signed an agreement to acquire rival contract caterer CH&CO in a deal worth £475m. The global food service company will take on the business, which provides contract and hospitality services in the UK and Ireland at venues that include Kew Gardens. CH&CO currently generates annual revenues of around £450m and operates across a range of sectors, including business and industry, sports and leisure, education, and healthcare, according to Compass, adding that its 'diverse client base and broad geographic spread' would complement Compass Group’s existing footprint in the UK and Ireland.
- Online booking platform Resy is to close its UK arm later this year in order to concentrate on its wider international business. In a letter sent to businesses that use the Resy platform, which has been seen by Restaurant, it states that users have until 31 August 2024 to offboard from Resy. It adds that users can choose to cancel Resy at any time before the end of August and will also be able to continue using the platform ‘at no cost’ until their offboarding date.
- Mark Derry has been appointed chairman of seafood specialist Wright Brothers. Derry, who is also Chairman of pub and brasserie group Heartwood Collection, will work with the seafood company, which operates three restaurants in London and an online fishmonger delivering fresh seafood nationwide to consumers, as well as two wholesale depots located in Brixham and Billingsgate.
- US-based casual dining operator Dine Brands Global is looking to launch a ‘duel-branded restaurant concept’ in the UK that encompasses its IHOP and Applebee’s chains. Dine Brands International, an affiliate of Dine Brands Global, is set to showcase the concept at The British & International Franchise Exhibition, which is being held at the Olympia London exhibition centre in West Kensington early next month. Dine Brands says the exhibition marks an exciting opportunity for it to showcase its dual-branded Applebee’s and IHOP restaurant concept to potential area developers and/or master franchisees for the UK market. It follows the success of similar launches in Canada, the UAE, and Kuwait.
For more of this week's headlines, click here.
