15/11/2022
Pub chain JD Wetherspoon is planning to sell a further 39 pubs after getting rid of five sites over the past three months amid a slow recovery in trading since the pandemic shut down hospitality. The Guardian report that the group said it was facing "substantially higher" costs, especially for repairs to its pubs, paying staff and food. It also said it would pay an extra £10m in interest over the next year as a result of higher rates.
The government is facing calls to investigate claims that some energy suppliers are charging inflated prices for gas and electricity to hospitality customers, reports The Caterer. Trade body UKHospitality said a probe needed to determine that energy firms were not "deliberately profiteering" from the current crisis. It said the difference between the price energy companies were paying for power on the wholesale market and how much they were charging their customers had "soared" over the last six months, despite government intervention.
Travelodge has secured £19.4m for a 113-bedroom development in Chiswick, west London, from funding partner RTP Global Real Estate Investments. RTP recently purchased the site and Property Week report that it will be single-let to Travelodge Hotels on a 24-year lease, with five-yearly index-linked rent reviews.
Nightcap - owner of bar brands including the Cocktail Club, Adventure Bar Group and the Barrio Familia group - has said it will be slowing its expansion plans over the next year due to market uncertainty, reports The Caterer. In the group's full year results to 3 July 2022, chief executive Sarah Willingham said that although there was a "growing number" of sites available on "increasingly advantageous terms", build costs had increased and trading in the first 13 weeks of the new financial year to 2 October was adversely impacted by record warm weather, train strikes and the cost of living crisis.
Hospitality businesses are facing a £900m increase in business rates next April, if current relief ends and rates increase in line with inflation, UKHospitality has warned. Big Hospitality reports that ahead of the Autumn Statement, Kate Nicholls, chief executive of the hospitality trade body is calling on the Chancellor to extend current business rates relief for the whole sector and scrap and plans to increase rates in line with inflation.
KFC is opening its first pub project this month, taking over a site on Fulham Palace Road in London. The Colonel's Arms will be a traditional British pub reimagined by KFC and is the only pub where guests can get KFC delivered straight to a table. It will be open between 25 November and 1 December, report Pub & Bar.