Economy, interest rates, visitor levies, coffee, C&C, JDW & other:

A DAY IN THE LIFE:

I don’t have much interest in poo but, as the dog owners out there will attest, it can’t always be avoided.

And, clear it up as you might from the scrubland that you call your lawn, there’s always more so, when the foxes join in, it can become somewhat exasperating.

But, it would appear, I’ve been tarring the repellent, flea-ridden murderers, vulpes vulpes, with too big a brush because, when I lowered myself, both physically and clearly in other ways, to Google Lens one particularly offensive leaving, it turned out to be hedgehog poo.

Which set me back a bit.

Because how can a hedgehog effectively give birth to something so monstrously large? How can it eat, digest and pass all that in one go?

Indeed, the animal must be the size of a football otherwise it wouldn’t have been able to climb off the thing.

Anyway, mon chapeau, as they say in France and this definitely needs more research.

On to the news:

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PUBS & RESTAURANTS:

Economy:

The ONS has updated on GDP data for July saying that the UK economy grew in the month by 0.4% following growth of 0.3% in June. The City had been looking for zero suggesting a material beat. Headwinds remain in the form of higher interest rates (see below), brewing inflation and supply disruption but, on the face of it, these are good numbers…

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Interest rates:

Interest rates on UK (and many overseas) bond markets have hit new 28 year highs. This has implications for the Bank of England’s MPC meeting next Thursday when a rise now looks quite likely. This would impact mortgage costs – indeed bond prices and yields already are – and thus consumption. The EU’s ECB put up base rates for the block yesterday….

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Overnight visitor levies:

The government is to introduce legislation to allow mayors in England to introduce an overnight visitor levy on tourists. The levy, which would be uncapped, could be charged on either a percentage basis or as a flat fee…

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Other news:

PM Andy Burnham commented at PMQs earlier in the week that the Government needs to ‘go further’ to support hospitality. He gave no specifics and certainly did not mention a permanent cut in VAT.

Coffee shops: Meaningful Vision reports that UK coffee shop openings grew by just 0.8% year on year in the first half of 2026. This represents a major slowdown on prior years….

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The Guardian reports that English sparkling winemakers expect their earliest grape harvest and a ‘vintage year’ after a scorching summer quickly ripened grapes.

More on Coffee: Although still off the top, global coffee prices rose sharply in July as concerns grew over supply, adverse weather conditions in Brazil and lower stocks. The International Coffee Organization’s July 2026 Coffee Market Report suggests that prices rose by 15.4% between June and July, the largest monthly increase since 2021.

Alcohol taxation. The Wine and Spirit Trade Association has called on the Chancellor to cut alcohol taxes. Its Budget submission said that spirit volumes fell by 15.3% over the last three financial years.

Tariffs: The US is imposing further restrictions on the sale of Canadian alcohol in the US. The restrictions could see a total ban coming into force.

C&C – ACQUISITION & TRADING UPDATE:

Trading update: C&C Group reports that ‘trading in the six months to 31 August 2026 has been in line with expectations.’

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Acquisition: The company has ‘reached an agreement with Asahi UK to acquire all of its UK wholesale interests for nominal consideration.’

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COMPANIES:

JD Wetherspoon has announced details of its upcoming 12-day beer festival this October saying that the festival, which will run from Wednesday 7 to Sunday 18 October, will feature overseas brewers from China, Denmark, Singapore, Ukraine and the USA, with all festival beers being new to Wetherspoon.

HOLIDAYS & LEISURE TRAVEL:

Flights from and to UK airports returned (more or less) to normal yesterday. Nats CEO Martin Rolfe, who was paid some £1.4m last year, has faced calls to resign. Despite transport secretary Heidi Alexander saying that the problems were not unavoidable, Mr Rolfe insists that he is staying put. 

The Advantage Travel Partnership reported that members’ revenues are up by 9% year on year so far in 2026. Commercial director John Sullivan says short haul revenue has risen by 6% and long-haul sales are up by 9%….

EasyJet pilots who are members of the SNPL pilots’ union based in France are reported set to strike for two days next week.

Perthshire family resort Crieff Hydro has officially opened its -new Padel Barn with associate director Richard Leckie saying ‘you don’t need to be an experienced player to pick up a racquet and have a go, so we hope the courts will appeal just as much to people trying padel for the first time as those who already love the game.’

Visitor attractions company Merlin Entertainments has successfully refinanced its debt and has secured a new package of £657m of new loans to fund maturities. The company, which runs the Legoland, Madame Tussauds and Sea Life Centres as well as Shrek’s Adventure! London and the UK Dungeons, has extended its debt profile/

OTHER LEISURE:

The UK government is saying that it is to force tech companies such as Apple and Google to prevent under-18s from sending or viewing nude images on smartphones.

Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon has resigned his position saying that AI labs are developing technology that could ‘kill us all’ before the end of this decade. He says developers are ‘gambling with our lives’.

New betting markets: The EU’s financial markets watchdog, the ESMA, has warned that tokenised equities and other innovative ways of effectively gambling on financial markets could have a real world impact. It also says that the ‘growing number of incidents illustrates that prediction markets are rife with insider trading.’

FINANCE & MARKETS:

For interest rate comments, see Pubs & Restaurants above.

The European Central Bank yesterday raised interest rates to 2.5% and cautioned that there could be both more inflation and further rate rises to come.

Sterling lower at €1.1634 and $1.3502. Oil up almost six dollars at $106.56. UK 10 year gilt yield up sharply again at 5.41%, up 15 basis points. Markets lower yesterday but London set to open up 16 points as at 6.30am.

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