Administrators hope to sell Coffee Republic this week - For more hospitality stories, see what the weekend papers say

Administrators hope to sell Coffee Republic this week
Administrator KPMG hopes to sell the Coffee Republic chain by Friday after receiving interest from more than 120 parties. The coffee shop chain collapsed last week after closing a company-owned store and the administrators have since closed 10 of the 19 remaining company-owned stores. It now comprises nine company-owned stores, 70 franchises and 97 concessions in cinemas, retail outlets and hotels. Two former Coffee Republic executives are expected to lodge competing bids by Monday’s deadline. Steve Bartlett, a former chief executive, has teamed up with card retailer Milton Guffogg while executive chairman Peter Breach is working on a separate offer. Bobby and Sahar Hashemi, the co-founders of the chain, are reportedly not interested while rival chains such as Costa Coffee and Caffe Nero are thought to be eyeing up some of the stores shut last week. Guffogg believes the group has a strong brand but needs“good management controls” and “strong leadership”. – 12 July, Read the full articles in the Sunday Times and the Sunday Express >>


Unpaid creditors infuriated by AWT comeback
Unpaid creditors are furious at the comeback plans of Antony Worrall Thompson, whose restaurant chain collapsed five months ago with debts exceeding £800,000. Worrall Thompson regained two of his six former restaurants and plans to reopen his Greyhound gastropub in Oxford this Wednesday, returning to the stove for the first time in more than a decade. Alan Hayward, the owner of Reading-based meat supplier Vicars Game said he had repeatedly contacted the chef over £1,200 he is owed. “I told him he’s worth £60m-odd and you cannot just walk away,” said Hayward. “He said he was sorry but that the company was gone and that was that. For the rest of my life, if he doesn’t pay me, I will hound him.” Other victims include snail supplier Dorset Escargot and Berkshire-based Butler’s Brewery, which ceased trading in April. Worrall Thompson said many suppliers – who had made profits from him in the past - had agreed to supply his relaunched restaurants as a way of clawing back some of their losses. – 12 July, Read the full article in the Sunday Times >>


Fine-dining openings and closures in Edinburgh
Malcolm Duck’s eponymous Edinburgh restaurant is to become a vegetarian bistro following its sale to local operator Jean Michel Gauffre, who owns Edinburgh’s La Garrigue restaurant. Duck’s has been in Edinburgh for more than 20 years and is the city’s longest-serving entrant in the Michelin guide. Duck, who is chairman of the Edinburgh Restaurateurs Association, put the restaurant on the market last year to focus on his East Lothian hotel with rooms, Kilspindie House in Aberlady, which will be renamed Duck’s after the sale. Gauffre plans to reopen Duck’s in Edinburgh as L’Artichaut in the middle of the Edinburgh Festival, offering vegetarian food with a lighter, French flavour. Last week, Tony Singh’s Oloroso, one of Edinburgh’s most-high profile restaurants, entered into a formal insolvency agreement to delay payments to creditors after running into cash flow problems. Meanwhile Roy Brett, a former protégé of Rick Stein, has quit the Dakota hotels chain to open a seafood restaurant, called Ondine, in Edinburgh’s Old Town this September. – 12 July, Read the full article in Scotland on Sunday >>
See also a report on the rise of a new crop of vegetarian restaurants in the Independent on Sunday >>


Papa John's to double UK outlets over the next four years
Papa John's will this week announce plans to double the number of its pizza takeaway outlets in the UK from 135 to 300 by 2013. The group, one of Britain’s biggest pizza chains, is one of the beneficiaries of the current recession. "This consumer climate is favourable to our proposition," said Ian Saunders, Papa John's managing director for the UK and Ireland. "People are looking for value." The group has already opened 17 new outlets this year and has another 15 in the pipeline for the second half. Papa John’s will also be opening a dough manufacturing plant in Milton Keynes to support its expansion plans.  –  12 July, Read the full article in the Sunday Telegraph >>

McDonald's to move HQ from London to Geneva over tax concerns
Fast-food giant McDonald's is to join the exodus of companies from the UK when it moves its European HQ from London to Geneva later this year. The reason lies with the UK’s decision to tax dividends from intellectual property rights and trademarks abroad, which was announced in this year’s budget. McDonald’s, which opened its first restaurant in the UK in 1974, said the move "enables us to conduct the strategic management of key international intellectual property rights, including the licensing of those rights to our franchisees in Europe, from Switzerland". McDonald’s European business has grown faster than the core US division in recent years to become its largest region by sales, with May revenue rising by 7.6% compared with a 2.8% rise in the USA. While senior executives such as European president Denis Hennequin will move to Geneva, the UK business headed by Steve Easterbrook will remain in London. – 12 July, Read the full article in the Sunday Telegraph >>
 

Jayne Middlemiss wins BBC Celebrity MasterChef cook-off
TV presenter Jayne Middlemiss beat athlete Iwan Thomas and actress Wendi Peters on Friday to become BBC’s Celebrity MasterChef. The contestants were asked to produce fine-dining dishes using just open fires and clay ovens at Sir Richard Branson's hotel in Morocco, cook for 90 crew members of a BBC drama, and prepare a meal for Michelin-starred chefs, including Michel Roux Jr. Middlemiss’s winning menu comprised a starter of seared scallops on apple puree with ground walnut sauce and fresh herbs; a main course of pan fried veal on a bed of baby red chard with truffle potatoes and a veal jus; and a dessert of lavender panacotta with crystallised violets.
Chef and co-presenter John Torode said, "Jayne is a natural cook. She has complete understanding of modern food."  – 11 July, Read the full article in the Daily Telegraph >>


Firefighter killed fighting fierce fire at Edinburgh pub
A firefighter was killed and another injured after a floor collapsed while they fought a fierce fire in an Edinburgh pub. The blaze, which broke out at the Balmoral bar in Dalry Road just after midnight, required more than 70 firefighters and 16 fire engines to bring under control. The officers injured were part of a team wearing breathing apparatus when a floor collapsed inside the bar. More than 20 people were rescued from the three stories of residential accommodation above the ground-floor bar, with many treated at the scene by paramedics for injuries including severed smoke inhalation. – 12 July, Read the full article in the Independent on Sunday >>


By Angela Frewin

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