The latest research insight report from People 1st has suggested that customer service skills are still not up to the standard that employers in the hospitality industry would like to see. The report found that while 87% of businesses said that customer service would be important for them in the next 3-5 years, 53% employers believe that their employees lacked these vital … [Read more...]
Consumers favour taste over healthy food
Allegra Foodservice’s latest analysis from the Eating Out in the UK report reveals that the seesaw is tipping towards “wow foods”, and away from “worthy foods”, with taste outweighing health for the majority of consumers, although taste is more important to males than females, with a 65% vs. 50% split. Rebelling against healthier options Insight Director, Steve Gotham … [Read more...]
Craft & Grill hosts Station 1-1-9 London debut
Craft & Grill, the craft beer and smokehouse/grill restaurant in Walton-on-Thames opened last month by Foundation Inns, recently hosted a ‘meet the brewer’ session for new Suffolk microbrewer Station 1-1-9. The event was the first foray into greater London for Station 1-1-9, which started brewing in June this year. Co-founders Marc Medland and Tom Martin set up a pop-up … [Read more...]
J D Wetherspoon: record sales, profit and earnings per share
J D Wetherspoon’s Preliminary Results for the 52 weeks ended 27 July 2014, included an attack on corporate governance (H&C News will report on this separately), and have attracted general support from market commentators – though Finspreads.com (see below) recognises the strengths whilst pointing to the issues of margin and debt. Chairman Tim Martin commented on the … [Read more...]
Greene King looks to continued progress
Greene King has issued its Interim Management Statement for the 18 weeks to 7 September 2014, pointing to the disappointing World Cup and consumer caution holding back revenues, but overall to continued progress: Current Trading Like-for-like (LFL) sales in Retail were up 0.4% in the first 18 weeks of the year, with tough comparatives from the excellent summer last year … [Read more...]