Premium Club subscribers to receive two updated databases this week: Premium Club subscribers will receive two updated databases this week. The latest Propel UK Food & Beverage Franchisor Database will be sent on Wednesday (11 March), at 12pm. The database will feature ten new additions plus updates to existing entries. The database now has 390 entries and more than 239,000 words of copy. Among the new entries are fish ‘n’ chip shop brands Mayfair Chippy and Big John’s and seafood concept Shrimp & Co. Premium Club subscribers will then receive the next Turnover & Profits Blue Book on Friday (13 March), at 12pm. The Blue Book is updated each month and ranks companies by turnover, profit and profit conversion, listing directors’ earnings for the past five years. Premium Club subscribers also receive access to five other databases: the Turnover & Profits Blue Book, the Multi-Site Database, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisee Database and the Who’s Who of UK Hospitality. All Premium Club subscribers will be offered a 20% discount on tickets to Propel paid-for events and discounts on specialist sector reports. Operators that are Premium Club subscribers are also able to send up to four members of staff to each of our four Multi-Club Conferences for free. Premium Club subscribers receive their daily Propel Info newsletter 11 hours earlier than standard subscribers, at 7pm the evening before. They also receive videos of presentations at eight Propel conference events two weeks after they are held. This represents around 100 videos of industry insight over the course of the year. Premium Club subscribers also receive exclusive opinion columns every Friday at 5pm, which include the thoughts of Propel chief operating officer – editorial, Mark Wingett, and a host of industry leaders from across the sector. A Premium Club subscription costs an annual sum of £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Premium Club for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or supplier. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com today to sign up.

Heston Blumenthal – In these times most restaurants are suffering in one way or another: Chef Heston Blumenthal, who will close his two-Michelin-starred Dinner by Heston restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental Knightsbridge next January, has said that in “these times most restaurants are suffering in one way or another”. After a celebratory eight-course tasting menu that spans five centuries of historic British food, and exactly 16 years after the restaurant opened its doors in 2011, The Times reports that Dinner by Heston will shut – permanently at the end of next January. This time next year one of Britain’s most influential restaurants will have closed its doors for good. The closure coincides with the end of Dinner’s tenancy in the Mandarin Oriental Knightsbridge. The contract was initially up this summer, but was extended by mutual agreement for six months to celebrate the anniversary. Blumenthal opened Dinner by Heston 16 years after launching the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, the three-Michelin-star restaurant that put British molecular gastronomy on the map in 1995 and earned him a reputation as the country’s great culinary innovator. Dinner by Heston’s success was stratospheric. Within a year it had picked up a Michelin star, the year after it secured a second. A lot has changed since then. The beleaguered hospitality industry has been battered by food inflation, Brexit, rising wages and a cost-of-living crisis. In 2023 SL6 Ltd – the parent company that owns Blumenthal’s restaurant empire – reported a pre-tax loss of £1.4m, and last year the chef admitted the business was in a bad way. “In these times most restaurants are suffering in one way or another,” he says. “It’s exacerbated by the fact that food prices are rising. We chose to partner with the Mandarin because of their level of service. But they’ve got budgets, and budgets don’t always meet up. Sometimes they do. It’s one of the things that you are always going to be getting with a tenancy and a restaurant in the hotel.”

Gen Z are going out less – here’s how to get us clubbing again: The prevailing image of my generation (Gen Z) – a bunch of celibate teetotallers more interested in placards than partying – is a false one and misappropriated to explain the ailing state of the British nightlife industry, claims 21-year-old Callum Martin. Writing in The Times, he said: “As a 21-year-old on the front lines I can confidently say the appetite is still there, yet there’s no doubt young people are clubbing less. A recent outing cost me £25 entry, £4 for the coat, and just shy of fifty quid for three double mixers. I was recently on a dancefloor in south London when some clearly hostile guys drifted over. I started speaking to one, and with no hesitation he settled into a kind of faux-UFC fighter bounce step, which seemed funny – until he started punching me in the face. It perfectly summed up the modern clubbing experience: I’d paid through the nose to have some idiot try to break it, while security remained oblivious. Far more serious than a bruised jaw are issues such as spiking, which has affected plenty of my mates. Safety is a prerequisite for fun and if bouncers can’t weed these patrons out, don’t be surprised when people stay at home. My greatest night out was a ten-hour club crawl in Krakow. Unfortunately British clubs tend to close much earlier. In fairness this is more of a government red tape and licensing issue, but one that’s under review, so here’s hoping. From 1980s disco to ‘Swiftageddon’, themed nights are a clubbing mainstay. But I once found myself at a Krispy Kreme night where the DJ marked every beat drop by launching doughnuts into the crowd. By the end of the night the dancefloor had become a sugary Somme, carpeted in an inch-thick layer of compacted dough. Please – just stick to Abba.”

Ex-Creams MD to launch community-first marketplace: Atif Amin, the former managing director of Creams Café, who took the brand from 42 to 92 sites, is to launch Maison Noor, a new “premium marketplace” at the former Mercato Metropolitano Ilford, later this month. Meaning “House of Light, Taste and Culture”, Maison Noor said it will create a “sophisticated indoor market experience inspired by the spirit and community of traditional outdoor marketplaces”. It will host a collection of 16 curated and differentiated 100% halal food and beverage traders. This will include leading brands like Badiani Italian Gelato, Caprinos Pizza, Chai & Chapati of Knightsbridge, the South Asian inspired restaurant café brand, Birria Taco, Mrs Potts’ Chocolate House, Flip and Sear, and Dum Dum Doughnuts. In addition to its food court, Maison Noor is planning to introduce, as part of a later phase following its initial opening, an 850 sq ft soft-play area designed for children and families, alongside a deli supermarket, a curated collection of specialist deli units, and a daily farmers’ market, and Shish Courtyard. The broader team includes Nicola Allieta, the chief executive of Mercato Metropolitano; Daniel Bear, who scaled Euphorium Bakery to 139 locations before its full sale to Tesco in 2017; Azeem Shaikh, a chef-entrepreneur with extensive experience developing and operating food and beverage concepts; and Miraan Amin, a strategic consultant who has worked with clients across the UK, Europe, US, and the Middle East. Atif Amin, managing director of Maison Noor, said: “We are incredibly proud and excited to introduce Maison Noor, a new concept that will create a new highly desirable destination in Ilford for all from across London. With our highly experienced and proven team, we’re bringing together some of the most exciting food brands, entrepreneurs, and traders under one roof to create a new space that is inspired by global cultures and adds value to the local community. Whether you’re looking for a new destination for date night, in need of artisanal produce, or hoping to indulge in some retail therapy, Maison Noor will cater for all in a setting that is warm, welcoming, and exciting. We can’t wait to open our doors and introduce Londoners to their new favourite destination.”