Insolvency stats, rail strikes, WFH, G4M, delivery, Brighton Pier & more:

A DAY IN THE LIFE:

Bit busy today so we’ll keep this short but, watching C4 News last night, I think the suffix ‘well, look’ has overtaken ‘to be fair’ on my hate list.

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Anyway, welcome to this year’s longest day and on to the news:

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PUBS & RESTAURANTS:

Business zombies:

Accountant Begbies Traynor has reported that the number of ‘zombie’ companies in the UK has begun to rise markedly…

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Separately, the government has released insolvency stats for May…

Other business trends:

Lloyds Bank has updated on the performance of sectors in the UK in May…

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Rail strikes.

Trains were disrupted a little yesterday but today sees the first of three planned rail strikes. UKHospitality warns that this week’s rail strikes could deliver a ‘fatal financial blow’ to businesses already struggling to survive, costing the sector £540m across the week, based on a 20% drop in sales where a typical June week sees takings of £2.75bn.

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Staff issues:

Barclays Corporate Banking reports that 18% of front of house staff positions are vacant, while 20% of cleaning staff roles are unfilled, with 94% of  hospitality and leisure businesses struggling to recruit personnel. One solution to the shortages could be to hire Ukrainian refugees, a move which has particularly high support in the east of England (87% in favour).

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Around 14,000 staff at Rolls Royce are to be offered a £2,000 one-off payment to help with the cost of living crisis. RR isn’t the first company to offer such a payment and, the way things are going, it may not be the last.

Working from Home:

Whilst this week will be abnormal because of the train strikes, flexible workspace provider IWG (formerly Regus) has suggested that the UK’s white collar workforce has become accustomed to working perhaps only three days a week in the office. IWG suggests that Tuesday is the day with the largest proportion of workers back in the office, with Wednesday and Thursday not far behind. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Monday and Friday are somewhat emptier.

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Footfall:

Springboard has commented on footfall for the week to 18 June and says that, overall, it was up 17% year on year but remains some 11.4% below the level seen in 2019. Footfall was up 4.1% week on week.

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Consumer loans.

Consumer champion Martin Lewis has said that moves to regulate the buy now, pay later industry are “painfully slow.” At the moment, tougher rules are not likely to impact until 2024.

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Hopes on ‘trading down’.

Per the Morning Advertiser: ‘pubs and bars would do well to think like Lidl and focus on driving home their value advantage over their competitors – namely the branded restaurant estates. The gap in pricing between branded pubs and branded restaurants is already substantial and in the favour of the former, and it’s growing.’

Delivery:

Down around 8% yesterday on news that its CFO was to leave the company, Deliveroo recovered most of its lost ground yesterday to close down just 2% or so. The shares, at 85p, are down almost 90% on last summer’s levels.

Fantuan Delivery continues to offer discounts to new and existing customers as it consolidates on its entry into the UK market…

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Other news:

Data from the IWSR shows that Americans are set to spend more money on Tequila and mezcal than they will on US whiskey in 2022, with an estimated $13.3bn of sales forecast for 2022. The trend for Tequila and mezcal will continue to see some headroom for some time yet, potentially cannibalising other spirits categories.

Foodservice analyst Peter Backman has noted ‘that the current situation that the foodservice sector finds itself in bears more than a passing resemblance to the situation in 1978.’

COMPANY NEWS:

Brighton Pier Group PLC yesterday announced that it is changing its year-end from 30 June to the 31 December. It says this ‘ensures that the typically busy summer trading months are aggregated within a single reporting period.’ The company will report 52wk numbers to end-June in September. Brighton Pier has also says that, when it further updates on trading, it ‘expects to report that revenue and adjusted EBITDA will be in line with market expectations.’

Pret has sold four stores to Joy Brands, an existing franchisee. Two are in Cambridge, one in Chelmsford and one in St Albans.

Leisure & retail property specialist Drake & Co has announced that it acted on behalf of Young & Co in the off-market acquisition of public house Merlin’s Cave, located ‘in the heart of the affluent, historic village of Chalfont St Giles nestled on the edge of the Chiltern Hills.’ The unit ‘is an attractive pub on the village green that has been serving the residents of Chalfont St Giles for over 100 years. Youngs has ambitious plans for the pub which will be a superb addition to our client’s growing premium managed pub portfolio.’

Independent hospitality business, Green & Fortune, has announced that it is expanding its portfolio with the ‘launch of a new landmark destination onto London’s world-class event scene.’ It says ‘set to be one of London’s largest venue openings this year, Rose Court Events is the fourth venue to be ‘brought to you by Green & Fortune’’.

HOLIDAYS & LEISURE TRAVEL:

Buoyant demand, supply still a bit of an issue:

Clare de Bono, Amadeus UK country manager, told the ITT conference last week that demand is ‘surging’ back to 2019 levels. De Bono said ‘Globally flight searches are down only 3% compared to 2019 but looking at the UK ,demand is already up 326% on last year and already equal to 2019. However, it’s not really equal because there are still 100 countries out there that have restrictions.’

London Luton Airport (LLA) saw 1.2m passengers in May, with further 200,000 travelling across the Jubilee, 2-5 June. LLA reported an average wait time for security of 10 minutes or less and almost 99% of flights operating as scheduled.

Pragma Consulting reports that there is understandably a strong demand for holidays abroad following the pandemic. A recent survey by Virtuoso revealed that 76% of luxury travel advisors had seen an increasing demand for luxury travel experiences.

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Per The Telegraph, staff shortages have led to British Airways, easyJet and TUI are using an employment loophole to operate flights with EU crews without British work visas. The airlines are borrowing EU-registered aircraft under so-called wet leasing agreements, and therefore can crew them with EU workers.

A baggage backlog has caused Heathrow to ask airlines to cancel 10% of their flights yesterday. Hundreds of passengers were left waiting for over three hours during the weekend to retrieve their luggage with no explanation from staff.

Iata forecasts that airline industry  losses this year are expected to reduce to $9.7bn, improved from the October 2021 forecast for an $11.6bn loss. North America is already expected to deliver an $8.8bn profit this year. The association suggested industry-wide profitability in 2023 ‘appears within reach’.

OTHER LEISURE:

Gear4music has reported full year numbers…

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FINANCE & MARKETS:

Sterling higher at $1.2262 and €1.1653. Oil price up at $115.21. UK10yr gilt yield up 10bps at 2.60%. World markets mostly better yesterday & London set to open around 26pts higher as at 6.30am.

FORTHCOMING NEWS:

Another relatively quiet week on the numbers front this week. Rank Group updated yesterday with a profit warning. Gear 4 Music reports full year numbers and Coca Cola HBC hosts its AGM on today and Chapeldown does the same tomorrow. Naked Wines announces full year numbers on Thursday and Carnival Cruises reports Q2 numbers on Friday.

A bit more lively on the economics front. UK CPI and RPI numbers come out on Wednesday with Public Sector Borrowing numbers on Thursday. Friday should see Flash PMI numbers as well as the widely-followed GfK Consumer Confidence numbers.

RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB:

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