Premium sports and entertainment gastropub concept backed by Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake to make UK debut: T-Squared Social, the premium sports and entertainment gastropub concept backed by golfer Tiger Woods and singer Justin Timberlake, is to make its UK Debut. The site will open in St Andrews, Scotland, at the New Picture House Cinema in North Street, close to the famous Old Course. T-Squared Social “redefines the multi-dimensional dining experience”, merging “elevated” cuisine and craft cocktails with state-of-the-art full swing simulators for golf and other interactive gameplay, duckpin bowling, darts, and premium sports-watching with large format televisions. T-Squared Social, which is owned by Nexus Luxury Collection, recently opened its first venue in New York City. “We are excited about coming to St. Andrews,” said Christopher Anand, chief executive and managing partner at Nexus Luxury Collection. “Tiger and Justin, along with our executive team and partners, are all passionate about the game of golf and revere St Andrews. It is an honour to bring this investment and the T-Squared Social experience to the home of golf. Our inaugural location in New York City is exceeding all performance metrics.” Woods added: “I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many special moments here at St Andrews. We all wanted to bring our T-Squared Social concept to St Andrews. The idea for T-Squared Social came to us during a round of golf at Albany, our development in The Bahamas. Justin and I thought it would be cool to create a place that combines our favourite things and brings people together to just have a great time. We always knew we wanted to do something together, and Nexus gave us the platform to bring our idea to life in New York City and now St Andrews.” Timberlake said: “I’ve come to St Andrews many times to play golf including to compete in The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. I’m honoured to be able to invest in the town and bring our second T-Squared Social here. Our new venue is so much more than a typical sports bar experience – it’s a place you can go to be entertained without sacrificing quality or comfort.” The new T-Squared Social will be located within the New Picture House built more than 90 years ago by local businessmen. After undergoing extensive renovations to support its new offerings, T-Squared Social will maintain one of the screens for watching films, live-to-cinema events and marquee TV programming. David Morris, managing director of the New Picture House, said: “The New Picture House will continue to operate as usual until further notice. The directors look forward to supporting T-Squared Social with its development plans.” T-Squared Social is owned by Nexus Luxury Collection, 8AM Golf, Woods and Timberlake.

EasyHotel reports 2023 trading showing ‘significant improvement’, regional UK expansion ‘remains important to business’, secures new €7m debt financing: EasyHotel has reported trading in 2023 is showing a “significant improvement” and said regional UK expansion “remains important to the business”. It comes as the business reported a “strong operational performance and rebound” post covid in the 15 months to 31 December 2022, with like-for-like hotels revenue 23% above 2019, “surpassing the occupancy levels of competitors”. The business said: “EasyHotel had a fantastic post-covid recovery, with hotel revenue above 2019, on a like-for-like basis, by 23%. Trading performance for the 2023 financial period is displaying a significant improvement, bolstered by robust new hotel launches in Dublin and Paris Aubervilliers, alongside the progressive expansion of existing properties. Wider regional UK expansion plans remain important to the business and will be considered on a case-by-case basis.” The group reported turnover of £80,700,000 for the period versus £21,503,000 in the year to 30 September 2021. This included £41.7m from owned hotels (2021: £9.8m) and £39m from franchised sites (2021: £11.6m). Adjusted Ebitda was up from £1,297,000 in 2021 to £12,468,000 while its pre-tax loss narrowed from £7,001,000 to £2,299,000. The company’s network now covers 42 hotels in 33 towns across 11 countries. The period saw it grow its market share by 15% and acquire eight hotels in the Netherlands and Belgium, adding 797 rooms. Two new leased hotels commenced operations, in Oxford and Paris, plus a further franchised hotel in Madrid. A current development pipeline of 620 rooms includes the 2023 openings in Dublin (160 rooms) and Paris (180 rooms). The group invested £52.4m in new development assets and acquisitions in 2022 and gained £13.3m in disposal of office space in London. The board has not recommended payment of any dividends “in order to conserve the group’s resources and focus investment on growing the hotel estate”. Post year end, it secured a new debt financing for €7m in January 2023, backed by its Nice hotel. “Our expectation is that in the medium and long term, our business will continue to grow and to outperform the overall market as it did in previous years,” the directors added. “The newest hotels in our estate have traded positively and provide confidence that the high-quality developments in key cities which the group is now focusing on will produce good long-term returns for our shareholders.” EasyHotel features in the Propel Turnover & Profits Blue Book, the next edition of which will be released to Premium subscribers on Friday (13 October). EasyHotel’s turnover of £80,700,000 is the 99th highest in the database. The Blue Book ranks companies by turnover, profit and profit conversion, listing directors’ earnings for the past five years. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Propel Premium for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or a supplier. The single subscription rate is £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com to upgrade your subscription.

Sky News – ‘dark kitchen' operator Kbox on brink of collapse: An operator which helps restaurants utilise spare food production capacity is on the brink of collapse, underlining mounting financial pressure on the “dark kitchens” sector. Sky News reported Kbox Global, which launched in 2019, has placed insolvency experts on standby after a new injection of funding fell through. City sources said Interpath Advisory had been lined up to act as administrators to Kbox, with a filing possible as early as this week. Insolvency could yet be averted if backers willing to invest more money emerge in the coming days, according to one source. Kbox was hit by the sudden exit last year of Salima Vellani, who is said to have stunned investors by leaving the company with little notice of her plans. The company, which was set up to help kitchens use live data to respond to local food delivery demand, has raised tens of millions of pounds from investors since its launch. Among its shareholders are respected venture capital funds such as Balderton Capital, an early backer of Revolut, and Hoxton Ventures, which has backed a string of British unicorns, including Darktrace and Deliveroo. Kbox has worked with brands including SuperRico, a Mexican street food operator, and MrBeast Burger, which was launched by Jimmy Donaldson, a prominent YouTube personality. Sky News said its likely demise comes amid financial challenges facing numerous dark kitchen operators, many of which have raised enormous amounts of capital to meet growing demand that failed to materialise.