City Diary — 13 May

T&C still onwards and upwards​

Town & City Pub Company has been leading the high street like-for-likes for a while now. Last year it was top of the tree with an 8.3% increase across the chain, which includes Yates's. Last week Wetherspoon reported like-for-likes moving backwards marginally — meanwhile Town & City was up 6.5% for the same period.

Quartet pursued Chicago Rock​

Insolvency specialist Zolfo Cooper has filed a report on the administration of Chicago Rock operator 3D Entertainment. Among the interesting detail is that there were four

serious bidders for the company, one of which withdrew when like-for-like sales plummeted by 27% in December last year.

The eventual buyer, Atmosphere backed by Sun Capital, forked out £7.5m for 31 sites on 26 February, plus a £500,000 cost contribution. Meanwhile, JD Wetherspoon paid £1.04m for five properties on 11 March this year. On the 11 sites left with the administrator, Collier CRE reckons there was "little value" with the exception, potentially, of Cumbernauld and Epsom where there has been a bit of interest.

Barracuda serves up dog's dinner​

Barracuda is making a dog's dinner of its new menu — literally. Its Varsity student-themed venues are serving up a dish called the "Dirty Dog's Dinner". The meal — a mound of sausages, smokey bacon, chips and beans — is actually served up in a dog's bowl. It is was one of the more "exotic" dishes spotted by analysts Horizon together with Brie and papaya quesadilla at Las Iguanas. The analysts also highlighted the McDonaldisation of the pub trade with super-sizing increasing in popularity. Marston's is offering a "go large for £1" on its carvery, Beefeater a "go large with your chips for 35p" and Punch managed pubs "add an extra egg" on gammon & chips.

New pitches as M&B plans PR​

After changing its chief executive and chairman within the space of a year, Mitchells & Butlers is now reviewing its choice of financial public relations advisor. Finsbury has advised M&B since its 2003 creation, which followed a demerger from Six Continents. Finsbury is thought to have been invited to re-pitch for the account alongside a group of

City rivals. Director of investor relations Erik Castenskiold said: "We have big growth plans and whenever a company evolves its strategy, it is natural to stand back and look at its agency relationships.

M&B has a significant presence on the financial pages, but we now need to consider whether there are other pages the company needs to be on as well." It is understood that pitches will be heard in the coming weeks.

Changes afoot at refurbed Flares​

City Diary mentioned that Mitchells & Butlers's 1970s-themed concept Flares may get sent to the brand knacker's yard on account of its core customer base having got too old for the circuit. Evidence of this emerges in Cleethorpes, where the former Flares and Reflex reopens as the Reflex Party Rooms after a £120,000-plus refurbishment. M&B has introduced a number of changes — there's a Michael Jackson VIP area and a new YouStar karaoke pad which revellers can hire out. Groovy. Except a blogger on the local newspaper website makes a point: "With all that money being spent, you would think they could put a new toilet seat on the loo in the ladies."

Live acts lined up for Senior's site​

Here's one that went under the radar. Industry veteran Bob Senior,

who ran Ultimate Leisure in its heyday, has converted Durham's Walkabout into a

live music venue called Durham Live. He hosted tambourine-bashing Bez of the Happy Mondays at the weekend and has the reformed Beautiful South and Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac lined up. "We're looking to book a series of comedy nights alongside burlesque performers starting in November," he says. You can't keep a good man down.

Rolling with Punch​

The new Punch chief executive Ian Dyson was the favourite internal candidate to take over from Stuart Rose at Marks & Spencer (M&S). Alas, the job went to Marc Bolland, who arrived the day before Dyson revealed he was quitting for Punch. Last year, Dyson was put in charge of 20-20, a turnaround project at Marks & Spencer, designed to "deliver a step change" in M&S fortunes, with a wide remit to look at overseas expansion, online opportunities and store numbers. It was viewed as a test-run to gauge whether he was a suitable successor to Rose. When the CEO's job was given to Bolland, analysts thought Dyson was bound to quit. Meanwhile, at Punch, Roger Whiteside, a former long-serving M&S staffer, joined the firm, thinking he had every chance of succeeding Giles Thorley as chief executive. Now this hasn't come to pass, will he stick around? There's a tempting vacancy back at M&S, Rog.

Head honcho makes waves​

And on the subject on Punch's head honcho, City Diary awards two gongs. The first goes to Sky News for breaking the story first at 2.57pm last Wednesday. The official announcement of Dyson's departure was rushed out 33 minutes later by M&S. And the Burton Mail gets the gong for best headline: "Dyson hoovers top job at Punch." Punch followed up at 4pm with chairman Peter Cawdron coming up with the oddest piece of phraseology: "Ian is an exceptional hire who will add further strength to the high calibre team at Punch." Makes him sound like a Hertz car.

Just a fistful of dollars​

What's for certain is that Ian Dyson isn't coming to Punch for the money. Last year, he received a total package worth slightly more than £1m, including basic pay of £625k. In that same period, Punch boss Giles Thorley was paid a total of £681k, including a basic salary of £525k.