Propel Newsletter Archive Page

Azzurri Group completes refinancing process: Azzurri Group, the hospitality investment platform which operates ASK Italian, Zizzi, Coco di Mama, Boojum and Dave’s Hot Chicken UK, has completed a refinancing, with a new four-and-a-half-year facility consisting of a new senior term loan, a new capital acquisition facility and upweighted revolving credit facility. The company said that the new facilities deliver “enhanced financial flexibility” and will support Azzurri’s growth strategy, particularly for Dave’s Hot Chicken, with plans to grow rapidly across the UK and to launch in Europe in 2026. Azzurri Group chief executive Steve Holmes said: “This new facility gives us greater financial flexibility and additional funds to accelerate our ambitious growth strategy, particularly for Dave’s Hot Chicken, which we are rolling out across the UK and Europe.” Last month, the business signed an exclusive agreement to roll out US brand Dave’s Hot Chicken across Europe. As part of the new agreement, Azzurri will develop a minimum of 180 Dave’s Hot Chicken restaurants across ten European countries, leveraging a joint venture partnership model to team up with experienced local operators in each market. The list of countries includes territories such as Portugal, Spain and Germany. The deal builds on the success of Dave’s Hot Chicken’s UK debut, which launched in late 2024 with a flagship site in Shaftesbury Avenue in London’s West End. Azzurri Group said the store exceeded expectations in both foot traffic and customer engagement, reinforcing the “concept’s broad appeal and high-growth potential”. Propel revealed last July that the US brand had signed a franchise agreement with Azzurri Group to open 60 locations across the UK and Ireland. The company plans to have 15 Dave’s Hot Chicken sites open in the UK by the end of next June, including its first site in Ireland. The brand has so far also launched in Birmingham New Street and The Printworks Manchester, with both “already performing exceptionally”. Azzurri is preparing to further scale the brand, with openings planned in Stevenage today (Friday, 3 October) and Westfield White City later this month, on the former Spaghetti House site. Azzurri has also secured another site, in Resorts World Birmingham, which will open in November, and the former Pret in Leicester town centre, which will open in January.

Exclusive – 2025 set to be landmark year for Jamie Oliver Group Restaurants with system sales passing £110m: Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group has told Propel that 2025 is “looking like being a landmark year” – with system sales passing £110m, 12 new openings, three new markets and the signing of its first hotel partnership deal. The chef currently operates circa 65 restaurants with more than 2,000 employees in more than 20 countries. Across restaurants, cafés and cookery schools, the group said it will have served around six million guests this year, with the restaurant group’s revenue on track to be 25% up on last year, underlining “strong momentum across its global portfolio”. The group said it will complete 12 new openings in 2025, including three new market entries in Oman, Montenegro and Greece. The company said: “A major highlight was the launch of its first airport location for the Jamie Oliver Kitchen brand at Jeddah International airport, delivered in partnership with long-standing travel F&B partner SSP. Momentum across the franchise network continues to build. In India, the group’s partner business has transitioned to new ownership, Hunch Ventures, committing £16.7m of investment over the next three years. This will accelerate expansion, with at least five new sites planned for 2026. The group also signed its first hotel partnership in 2025, to be announced shortly, and launched Jamie’s Pasta Bar – a new quick-service pasta concept – at The Hangar in Belgrade, with discussions already underway for further roll-out. In the UK, the May launch of the Jamie Oliver Cookery School and Café at John Lewis Oxford Street has exceeded expectations, with strong fourth quarter bookings and international opportunities now under review. Meanwhile, the flagship Catherine Street restaurant in Covent Garden is trading 10% up on a like-for-like basis in 2025, following a strong first full year in 2024. The Jamie Oliver Restaurant Group has also secured a new catering contract with its neighbour, the Theatre Royal with an afternoon tea offer.” The group said it has a “solid international pipeline for 2026”, with ten to 15 openings expected across key markets. Group restaurants director Ed Loftus told Propel: “Building on 2024’s strong foundations, 2025 is looking like being a landmark year, with system sales passing £110m, welcoming six million guests, entering new markets and launching innovative formats. Even with numerous macro and economic headwinds, we’re pleased to see the restaurant business continuing to grow against this backdrop, with our brands resonating strongly with guests around the world. With a solid pipeline and continued partner investment, we'’e well placed to carry this momentum forward into 2026 and beyond.” It comes as the growth in performance of the Catherine Street restaurant and the continuing popularity of the chef’s recipe books helped boost turnover of the chef’s group during its latest financial year. Jamie Oliver Enterprises, which also includes all of Oliver’s media interests such as TV and digital production and book publishing, reported turnover of £28,551,830 for the year to 31 December 2023 (2023: £27,070,623). Ebitda stood at £4.4m (2023: £5.2m). The company said its franchise income was £3,659,385 (2023: £3,650,519), while it also reported turnover of £3,659,385 from its new flagship restaurant during the period (2023: £335,983). From royalties, endorsements and licensing, the company generated a turnover of £17,691,033 in the year, down from £18,365,324.

The Alchemist CEO – latest financial year was something of a standstill year, 2025 trading in line with market: Simon Potts, chief executive of bar and restaurant brand The Alchemist, has told Propel that the 12 months to 31 March 2025 was “something of a standstill year for us in many ways”, but that trading in its current financial year is “in line with the market”. It comes as the business reported turnover for the year to 31 March 2025 of £57,880,000 (2024: £60,319,000), with a pre-tax loss of £2,083,000 (2024: loss of £1,099,000). It said that site Ebitda stood at £9m and that the business remains in a “robust state”. Potts told Propel: “Something of a standstill year for us in many ways. As I’ve said previously, it feels like we're in a bit of a holding pattern currently while we wait for the economic environment to settle around us. I think our results speak volumes about the work that we’ve done to mitigate the relentless cost ratcheting that government has wrought on the sector – and we remain grateful to UKHospitality and industry colleagues for their continued efforts to lobby for parity and relief on that front. We’ve done the same work to manage through the last 24 months or so that everyone has; seeking gains in procurement, labour and margins. Maintaining profit and Ebitda at such a time feels like a feat in itself – and when I consider that the late-night market has contracted by an astonishing 26% over the last five years, you can see the scale of the challenge. So, a steady ship is fine for now in what are clearly choppy waters. I’m proud of the adjustments we’ve made to our mindset – energy and excitement is easy to come by when you are rapidly growing a business and it's a different discipline to manage and maintain a high tempo attitude across a large estate – and I love the fact you still walk in to any of our sites and feel that sense of theatre. We’ve married all of the cost work with a relentless guest focus, and I remain happy and heartened by the positive experiences that our guests, and our teams, are having in our venues. So much of performance in our world is dictated by the consumer, and it is encouraging to see that confidence creeping up as the pressure unwinds; at least as interest rates and savings ratios are going down and we are confident that we’ve got spaces and an offer that continue to resonate soundly with our customers. Of course, we continue to invest in our estate, with over £600,000 committed to recent refurbishments completed in Covent Garden and at our flagship site at Canary Wharf, where trading continues to be very strong indeed. We’ve also just completed a long running project to completely overhaul our website, with a square focus on the user experience, clean booking journey and a proper digital representation of our cocktail and food world. In other news, our new book launches next month – with over 60,000 copies sold of the first volume. It’s really exciting for us to be seeing the new tome on bookshop shelves across the country in time for the festivities! Trading this year has been in line with the market; I think we’re all clear that the winners last quarter have been the pubs with gardens, but we’ve had plenty of success with our outside spaces – breaking sales records in MediaCity and Canary Wharf along the way. Overall, I’m looking forward to the rest of the year, with the more familiar Great British weather giving way to the strong Christmas booking activity already starting to pile up.”

Pubs set to stay open until 1am for World Cup late kick-offs: Pubs are set to be allowed to stay open until at least 1am during the World Cup next summer as fans in the UK face matches kicking off late at night. World football governing body FIFA is expected to schedule some matches involving top European sides, including England, to start at 11pm or even 2am UK time in a bid to combat the heat issues that affected this summer’s Club World Cup. The World Cup is being played in the United States, Canada and Mexico, where summer temperatures can rise above 35C, with intense humidity too, making matches starting at noon and 3pm local time very testing for the players. A government source said that the World Cup was certain to be declared an “occasion of exceptional national significance” which would allow pubs and bars that are usually obliged to close at 11pm to stay open for an extra two hours without needing to apply for special permission. It is unclear whether there would be scope to extend that to 4am should an England match kick off at 2am. The government source said allowing pubs to open later should mitigate the effect of late kick-offs involving England and other top nations affecting takings. There is expected to be a consultation with police, local authorities and the pub trade organisations, with confirmation likely to be in the spring. Ministers can point to precedents including the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where there was a similar time difference to the US East Coast, when pubs were allowed to stay open until 1am. Later openings were also permitted when England Women reached the semi-final and then final of Euro 2025 this summer, while pubs were allowed to serve alcohol at breakfast time when England reached the final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.

BrewDog sells Scottish forest amid mounting losses: Brewdog has sold an £8.8m Scottish forest it acquired just five years ago after mounting losses forced it to cut spending. The Telegraph reports that the site, a former grouse moor known as the Kinrara Estate, was acquired by the brewer in 2020 to help with its net zero credentials. At the time, the Scottish brewer had grand plans to plant millions of trees and turn it into Scotland’s “biggest ever” forest. However, the initial planting was a failure because the trees died and Brewdog had now sold the estate to rewilding outfit, Oxygen Conservation. “The time is right to hand over the reins to an organisation that specialises in protecting and investing in natural capital,” Brewdog said. Under then-chief executive James Watt, the company said the project would help it become the world’s first carbon negative beer brand and be funded partly by sales of its Lost Forest beer. However, Brewdog was forced to retract many of the claims about the forest after unveiling the purchase to much fanfare. These included admitting that the estate was actually 9,142 acres rather than over 12,000 acres as claimed and that the site would absorb much less CO2 annually than originally expected. The move signals Brewdog’s bid to revive its fortunes and focus on its main brewing business after a slide in sales. The company’s latest accounts showed it posted a loss of £37m last year, the fifth consecutive year of losses. Rich Stockdale, chief executive of Oxygen Conservation, denied claims that Brewdog’s efforts at Kinrara failed completely. “We were blown away by the job that had been done. [It was] far better than we expected. No woodland creation or environmental restoration project is without its challenges,” he said.

St Austell CEO – Visit Cornwall’s liquidation is ‘deeply concerning and marks a critical moment for Cornwall’s visitor economy’: Kevin Georgel, chief executive of St Austell Brewery, has said that the news that Visit Cornwall, the Community Interest Company responsible for promoting Cornwall as a visitor destination since 2015, had gone into voluntary liquidation, was “deeply concerning and marks a critical moment for Cornwall’s visitor economy”. Since its formation, Visit Cornwall has played a central role in marketing the county and representing its tourism industry, a sector that brings £2.1bn per year into Cornwall and accounts for 20% of all jobs in the county, plus many more in service industries. Georgel said: “The news of Visit Cornwall’s liquidation is deeply concerning and marks a critical moment for Cornwall’s visitor economy. As one of the region’s largest employers and a proud champion of Cornish hospitality, we urgently need to understand what a robust and coordinated plan to support the tourism sector looks like moving forward. Tourism remains the backbone of Cornwall’s economy, supporting thousands of jobs and sustaining so many local businesses. The loss of Visit Cornwall comes at a time when the sector is already facing unprecedented challenges: falling visitor numbers, rising costs and the closure of iconic attractions and venues. The sector needs leadership, investment and a clear strategy to navigate the current climate and build resilience for the future, which we recognise can only be delivered by a collaborative approach that brings together public and private businesses to drive recovery and growth.”