Friday Wrap: A round-up of the week's hospitality news

Trying to walk a straight line when someone mentioned cheap wine. Have a drink on me.

Although most of us aren’t thankfully as indulgent as the boys from rock group AC/DC there’s still been quite a thirst for all things pub and plenty of news this week.

Punch Taverns and Mitchells & Butlers are set to enter the FTSE-100 Index of leading shares, while Barracuda proved what a big fish it had become by netting £40m to speed up its expansion.

Geronimo Inns boss Rupert Clevely challenged a darts pro to a session at the ockey and Punch Taverns made the news again with the announcement its chief operating officer was slinging his respective hook.

Bull’s-eye.

The Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) launched a heritage site to protect pub interiors of note while looking to the future with a consultation role to do with Gordon Ramsay’s soon to open first pub.

Maybe we aren’t simply out to get drunk though, as a new report from Britvic claimed soft drink sales growth was now in front of alcohol in pubs.

A Spanish company has fittingly entered the contest for Spanish-themed La Tasca as Yo! Sushi chief executive Robin Rowland denied that his conveyor-equipped restaurant chain was for sale.

With less than a week to the publication of the Lyons Inquiry into local government funding, opposition continued to build to any imposition of a bed tax in England and Wales.

Unperturbed, InterContinental are on the hunt for a second luxury hotel site in the capital.

By Chris Druce

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