Stonegate, Diageo, Airbnb, services output, disposable incomes & other:

A DAY IN THE LIFE:

Don’t you find it irritating when, if you’re giving your details online and are asked to put your password twice in order to ensure you’ve done it right first time, you’re told ‘passwords don’t match, passwords don’t match, passwords don’t match’ every time that you input a single letter?

Because of course they don’t match when you’ve just typed in the first couple of letters or numbers, we know that.

And, when it asks for your email address, if the website insists on bleating ‘wrong format’ before you’ve got to the @-sign, then it’s still adding no value.

Indeed, if anything, it’s just stressing you out and making it more likely that you’ll type something in wrong and have to start again or you’ll type in some expletive as your irritation at being nagged will overtake your desire to get the thing right in the first place.

Just saying. On to the news:

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PUBS & RESTAURANTS:

Service sector output:

Down on last month but better than the Flash number. S&P reports that the UK’s Service Sector PMI fell to 49.3 in September, down from 49.5 in August. Whilst still indicating decline, it is higher than the flash number of 47.2 that was reported on 23rd of last month…

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Stock shortages & flexibility:

Lynx Purchasing says operators who can quickly change Christmas menus based on price and availability will succeed this year. That may mean substituting beef for turkey or switching seasonal veggies. Supply chain issues persist such as avian flu impacting turkey supplies….

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Consumer disposable income:

Tesco CEO Ken Murphy said the grocer is committed to lowering food bills amid the cost of living crisis by consistently being the cheapest full-line grocer…

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Residential rental costs: Rightmove has reported that residential rents in the UK are at their highest level ever after having risen by 10% over the past 12 months….

Labour issues:

Labour issues. UKH has responded to the creation of a new Advanced British Standard (to replace A-levels) that will combine academic and technical education for 16-19 year olds. CEO Kate Nicholls says ‘putting vocational education on the same footing as academic education is long overdue and sectors like hospitality will stand to benefit when this plan comes to fruition….’

Supply chain:

A reminder that problems have not entirely gone away. Over 60% of hospitality firms have cut hours in the last year because of supply chain disruptions, rising costs, and staffing shortages, finds new research from BRITA Professional. More than half have also reduced menu offerings and portion sizes, negatively impacting staff and customers….

Other news:

UKHospitality and the British Beer and Pub Association have jointly supported proposals to allow cashless payments on gaming machines. The trade bodies, in a joint response to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, highlighted the importance of sensible and proportionate safeguards being included to protect players….

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In the US, McDonald’s and Wendy’s have won a New York lawsuit that had been accusing them of misleading burger size in ads by using undercooked patties to look more appetising….

COMPANY NEWS:

Stonegate is seeking to raise debt, reports Bloomberg. The news operator says ‘Stonegate Pub Co. is working on options to raise new debt against 1,000 pubs, according to people familiar with the situation, as plans to sell off the portfolio have so far been unsuccessful….’

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Diageo has countersued rapper Diddy, alleging he threatened racism accusations and reputational damage unless paid $100M; Diddy originally sued Diageo for racial discrimination related to vodka and tequila brands, which Diageo calls weaponising racism allegations for personal gain.

HOLIDAYS, HOTELS & LEISURE TRAVEL:

Travel weekly reports that travel advisor Chris Photi predicts Booking.com will be the largest Atol holder within 2-3 years, despite current top two Jet2Holidays and Tui extending their lead in recent Atol renewals….

Florence has banned new short-term rentals like Airbnb in its historic centre and offered tax breaks to landlords switching to long-term leases. Mayor Nardella says Airbnb listings have jumped from 6,000 to over 14,000 since 2016 while rents have risen 42% over the same period, turning the area into ‘apartment hotels’ unaffordable for locals….

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Tui Group is launching an initiative to recruit more staff without traditional tourism qualifications in order to cope with an overall skills shortage.

The International Air Transport Association has reported that “strong” global post-pandemic passenger traffic growth continued in August, almost reaching pre-Covid levels….

PM Rishi Sunak has officially scrapped the remaining northern leg of HS2. The Leeds leg was scrapped two years ago. Mr Sunak says the taxpayer will fund more east-west links….

OTHER LEISURE:

Recast Sports, a sports streaming service that collapsed into administration last week, has now been rescued by its founder Andy Meikle via a new company called Content Technology Partners. Some of the staff of Recast have been transferred but most have been made redundant. Recast Sports had customers like Manchester City and Inter Milan, but entered insolvency last month after funding talks failed.

FINANCE & MARKETS:

For S&P’s Serviced PMI, see Pubs & Restaurants above.

As regards financial services only, the CBI has produced its Financial Services Survey for Q3 saying that ‘financial services activity held relatively firm in Q3 of 2023, despite some softening from a buoyant second quarter.’ It says ‘optimism and business volumes growth were quick in the three months to September, although to a lesser extent than the previous quarter…’

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Interest rates. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has said that rates in the US could go higher. Bond markets have recently been selling off….

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The ICAEW has updated on the UK economy saying that, whilst inflation is falling, the jobs market is weakening and national output is under downward pressure. The ICAEW says ‘output from all of the main sectors – services, industrial production and construction – fell in July, the first month since June 2022 that all three sectors contributed negatively to overall GDP…’

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Fund raisings on the LSE fell in Q3 to just £360m compared to already-quiet figure of £565.5m in Q3 last year, reports EY….

The Home Builders Federation has said that England is now “the most difficult place to find a home in the developed world”. It says it has compared England with a group of 38 nations, including most of the EU the US, Japan and Australia.

Sterling up at $1,2156 and €1.1551. Oil lower at $89.39. UK 10yr gilt yield up 4bps to 4.62% (having been considerably higher intra-day). Markets except the UK heading better yesterday and London set to catch up a little, forecast up 30pts, as at 6.30am.

RETAIL WITH NICK BUBB:

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