City Diary: 12 June
Start saving on a rainy day
Jamie's Bar in Bishopsgate wins a City Diary award for the most bizarre promotion of 2008. The bar is offering punters a 25% discount of their food — when it's raining. The promotion is called: "Sunshine on a rainy day". Small print suggests it only has to be a day when there's been some rain — it doesn't need to be raining when you order.
Cultivating leaks on City soil
When Punch Taverns and Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) were engaged in an extended flirtation and in the latter case, a strategic review, over the early months of 2008, every behind-the-scene move was reported in the City pages of the national newspapers. It's hard to remember a recent story where the newspapers were so well-informed. So who was briefing them in such detail, something that simply should not happen according to market rules? There's an absolute consensus on the pub-industry grapevine. Ring City Diary on 01293 610344 to have the name of the leaker leaked to you.
Your guess is as good as mine
How good a line of sight do tenanted pubco bosses have on how their licensees are faring economically? Marston's boss Ralph Findlay insists that the answer is: they don't. Asked how Enterprise boss Ted Tuppen can claim that 73% of his hosts are trading in line or ahead of last year, Findlay told journalists at his results meeting: "He doesn't — he's guessing."
Loyal lieutenant's work rate
Aaron Brown, a loyal lieutenant to Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) major shareholder Robert Tchenguiz, is one of the two Laurel directors parachuted onto the M&B board. Among the many companies Brown is a director of are — suitably, in these straitened times — Crunch (Propco) Limited and Crunch (Cayman) Limited. M&B wants to set up an operating company that will pump out rent to a property company, qualifying for real estate investment trust (Reit) status. Brown's on the board for his, er, property expertise. His directorships of Pumpster Property Acquisitions, Pumpster Holdco and Pumpster Property No 2 may well help with the rent-pumping process at M&B.
Stick or twist — we're going bust
Marston's has confirmed that its suppliers under contract are telling them how hard they are finding it to supply on existing terms. The Evening Standard's Simon English reports the chief executive of a well-known pubco received a phone call from a supplier who told him the following: "I know we agreed a contract for the next two years but if you keep paying me at this rate I will go bust. Probably next week. You can renegotiate the deal with me or find someone else, or argue it out with the administrators I am about to call if you don't give me more money." These are very strange times indeed.
Two O'Neills sites sold to Young's
Those reading the Morning Advertiser will know Mitchells & Butlers has great faith in the longevity of its Irish O'Neill's brand. Interesting, though, that two O'Neill's venues where M&B owns the freehold, have been sold to Young's — one in Brighton and one in Blackfriars. Both have been returned to their original names — Seven Stars in Brighton and the Albion in Blackfriars.
Council kibosh on café culture
Some town hall planners are not getting this Continental café culture thing at all. Greene King want to convert Hunts Court in Taunton — a lovely building unused for 10 years — into a Loch Fyne seafood restaurant. The plan is contingent on consent to create a little alfresco dining, which has now been rejected by the local authority. Duncan Brown, for Loch Fyne's agents Greenslade Taylor Hunt, says: "Eating outside in the summer is prevalent throughout Europe — it creates a wonderful atmosphere, reduces crime and this can only be a good thing." Quite.
Punch hits out at road charge idea
Local authorities and Government seem to find ever more ways of squeezing cash out of businesses. Good on Punch Taverns, which owns 119 pubs inside the M60. It has come out against plans for congestion charging in Manchester and has joined the Greater Manchester Momentum Group, a private sector group, lobbying against the proposals.
Suzy Jackson, regional operations director, said she was worried about increased costs of deliveries and staff wages. Workers faced with paying up to £1,200 more per year to commute would have to be compensated or they would look for jobs elsewhere, she said.
"Given all the other economic constraints we are under from utility charges, taxation and the general slowdown, this would be really damaging," added Jackson. Enough is enough, surely?
When you say 'full disclosure', Neil...
Funny how often losing a senior executive can lead to other members
of senior management following him or her.
Only natural really. The former boss of Greene King's managed division, Neil Gillis, who now runs Blacks Leisure and once gave a presentation in the nude to make a point about something, has recruited Greene King group financial planning officer Marc Lombardo as his new finance director. You just hope Lombardo has a no-nudity clause in his contract.
Between a Rock and a Hard place
A job in hospitality should sound more interesting and social than most jobs, yes?
An advert for Hard Rock Cafe staff drives the point home, flirting occasionally with hyperbole.
"Imagine how you are going to help guests get their money's worth," an advert tells would-be staff.
"Treating customers to their Hard Rock experience. It's passionate and authentic. It's real. On the line, back of the house, front of the house or greeting them as they approach the front door, blowing them away so they come back again and again." The advert is headed: "For those about to rock, we recruit you." We get the idea, sort of.
