Late night market, inflation, DPEU, Everyman, Subway & other:

A DAY IN THE LIFE:

Judging from the quantity of Out of Office replies coming in, either a large number of people are still on holiday for the second week of Easter or there has been an outbreak of forgetfulness when it comes to turning the auto-response off.

Langton is here, though.

And we’ve adopted the easiest and most obvious response to the above problem by failing to grasp how to turn on any kind of automated email in the first place.

Anyway, in the hope that there are some people out there, let’s move on to the news:

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PUBS & RESTAURANTS:

Late night market:

REKOM UK has updated on the UK late-night leisure & hospitality industry saying that the ‘cost-of-living crisis is catching up with students’ spending habits on a night out.’ It says it has noted lower consumer confidence and says that its ‘report shows pricing to be most important factor for Brits when deciding where to go on a night out…’

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Cost of living crisis:

In a similar vein, PwC finds that 50% of consumers are either very or extremely concerned about their personal financial situation. It says that a majority of this group has already altered their level of non-essential spending….

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Easter spending:

Barclays reports that ‘Hospitality and Leisure businesses benefitted from a 2.7% per cent increase in the total number of sales over the Easter Bank Holiday Weekend (7-10 April) – compared to Easter 2022 – as Brits made the most of the warmer weather and enjoyed days out after months of cutbacks….’

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Drinks sales:

CGA’s Drinks Recovery Tracker suggests that wet sales in the on-trade were down by 3% in the seven days to Saturday 25 March. Short time periods will be heavily impacted  by the weather and other short term factors.

Inflation

The Daily Mail reports that Pret A Manger ‘has pushed up prices by as much as 18 per cent on the back of soaring food ingredient costs, punishing energy bills and the need to give staff three pay rises this year….’

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Labour market:

A report from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and KPMG suggests that the supply of candidates for jobs has increased for the first time in more than two years. The rise is reported to be ‘modest’….

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Other news:

Springboard reports footfall at shopping centres up +15.0% YoY for the week ended 8 April, boosted by strong consumer demand in the run up to and over Easter.

Discounting. Not an awful lot of it about though M&B’s Toby Carvery is offering kids eat for a pound until Thursday.

COMPANY NEWS:

DP Eurasia has reported full year numbers to end-December saying that LfL system sales growth for continuing operations was minus 5.3% after plus 26.0% last year. The company reports system sales growth for the first 11wks of this year as +18.2% for continuing operations and +11.6% in Russia…

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The New York Post reports that Subway may cut its sale price from around $10 billion to perhaps ‘upwards of $7 billion…’

Loungers is reported set to open its first bar and restaurant in Northumberland.

M&B’s Browns Covent Garden has re-opened after a £2.5m refurb.

Tupperware in the US is reported set to go bust unless it can access emergency funds.

The Black Sheep Brewery plc has confirmed that it is reviewing its financing options and may be up for sale, appointing Teneo as its financial adviser. Charlene Lyons, chair & CEO of The Black Sheep Brewery, said ‘Forward funding is an issue for many businesses in the tight market brought about by the after-effects of Covid-19 on the hospitality sector and this is exacerbated by the cost-of-living issues affecting consumer spending.’

Railway coffee franchise Puccino’s plans to grow its UK estate to 125 sites over the next five years, with five new sites set to open in 2023. The company recently opened its first site of 2023 in East Croydon.

In an interview with MCA, Vagabond founder Stephen Finch announced that the company has put forth a bid on an ‘exciting venue that will push the business forward significantly’ saying that ‘Gatwick will be the equivalent of four or five Vagabonds’. Finch indicated that airports and sites outside London will be a priority for the brand going forward.

Waitrose is to launch Gail’s Bakery areas within 64 of its shops in the south and east of England by May this year. The supermarket will also be doubling its range of Gail’s sourdough breads and other craft baked goods.

HOLIDAYS & LEISURE TRAVEL:

Christie & Co has announced the sale of Yorkshire’s iconic ‘The Midland Hotel,’ Bradford, to Britannia Hotels. Built in 1890 by the Midland Railway Company, the Midland Hotel will be Britannia’s 64th hotel.

A Deloitte survey has found that business travel spending is tracking towards a full recovery to 2019 figures by 2024 or 2025…

Heathrow has claimed it provided ‘excellent’ service levels during the Easter holidays despite a strike by security staff. The London hub handled more than 6.2m passengers in March, up by one million on the previous month.

OTHER LEISURE:

Everyman Media has reported full year results to 29 December, saying that admissions rose to3.4m from 2.0m and that revenue was £78.8m against £49.0m. Adjusted EBITDA was £14.5m against £8.3m and the loss before tax was reduced from £5.4m to £3.5m…

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Video game developer Devolver Digital reports revenues +37.1% YoY to $134.6m in its full year results…

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Leeds-based Invincibles Studio  has raised a further £1m from NPIF – Mercia Equity Finance. The funds will be used to build on the success of its Soccer Manager game with the launch of two new football action games.

The British Basketball League (BBL) bought the Manchester Giants out of administration before a search for a new investor was launched. This is despite the BBL issuing a press release last week saying the league was ‘exploring offers from prospective third-party investors’ for the franchise.

The BBC has complained to Twitter about being labelled as ‘government-funded media’. Musk emailed the BBC, saying ‘I do think media organisations should be self-aware and not falsely claim the complete absence of bias.’

Former Twitter boss Parag Agrawal is suing the social media company for failing to cover about $1m in personal legal expenses as it battles investigations by American authorities.

FINANCE & MARKETS:

The International Monetary Fund has said that it believes interest rates in major economies will fall back to their pre-pandemic low levels because of low productivity and ageing populations…

The IMF predicts that the UK will be the worst-performing major economy this year with GDP down by 0.3% followed by a 1% increase next year…

Tony Danker, until yesterday the director general of the CBI, has been dismissed with immediate effect…

Sterling mixed at $1.2436 and €1.138. Oil up at $85.69. UK 10yr gilt yield up 13bps at 3.54%. World markets better yesterday but US variable late & Far East mixed. London set to open down around 7pts as at 6.30am.

RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB:

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