TGI Fridays UK owner – ‘we are getting back to what people expect from us, a little over the top and fun’: Ray Blanchette, the owner of TGI Fridays UK, believes that a turnaround of the business is possible and that the brand is “getting back to what people expect from us” – with the intention to be “a little over the top and fun”. Blanchette’s Sugarloaf investment firm acquired 33 of TGI Fridays’ restaurants across the UK in January, safeguarding 1,384 jobs. At the same time, 16 sites were closed with immediate effect. Blanchette told The Guardian he believes TGI, which has 420 restaurants in 42 countries, can get its mojo back in the UK and head to 1,000 outlets globally. “We have enough history and legacy to build off,” he said. “I know this brand is important in the UK.” On taking on the British business, Blanchette found parts of it had been left underfunded. At 14 sites, almost half the current chain, there was no heating, while other outlets had refrigerators that did not work. Blanchette says he is now investing more than £2.5m, on top of regular maintenance bills, in revamping restaurants and kitchen kit, including updating memorabilia, and in developing coaches to train up staff. He claims that under its more recent owners, the menu had become too expensive, and there had been too little investment in the restaurants, while staff training had gone. “We saw restaurants in a horrible condition,” he said. “That’s now sorted. We are getting back to what people expect from us. It is intended to be a little over the top and fun.” Chefs have been retrained to cook the new menu from scratch, and a two-courses plus drink value menu at £12.49 has been introduced, as well as more affordable appetisers and sharing plates. TGI is unlikely to open more UK restaurants in the coming year – unless a site comes up in London, where it once had bustling sites in Covent Garden and on Piccadilly. “I certainly want to expand but there are things to do first,” Blanchette said. “We are looking through the windshield, not the rear-view mirror. This is not about going back to the 90s.”

 

 

Flight Club owner targets European expansion: Red Engine, the hospitality group behind Flight Club and Electric Shuffle, has confirmed to Propel that it has now initiated a formal search for tier one partners to lead expansion into Europe. The business currently operates 40 venues across 30 cities globally since first opening in London's Shoreditch in October 2015, including sites in the US and Australia. As first reported in The Times, the company is looking to expand to cities including Amsterdam, Paris and Madrid, as well as parts of Scandinavia. Steve Moore, Red Engine’s founder and chief executive, told The Times: “It’s really important we understand the local market, and I think the closer it is to home, the better. It’s going to be opportunity-led, and the key for us is to find that amazing local operator. We are not silly enough to say we know best. We will bring our decade-long experience, but what we are looking for is that exceptional local operator who knows hospitality in that region.” Moore said the success of Flight Club and Electric Shuffle across Australia and the US were “nice proof points” that the concept resonated in different parts of the world. Red Engine is targeting between seven and eight openings a year, which Moore believed was a goal the business “can cope with while making our existing estate better and better and focusing on product development”. The group’s total sales, comprising both company-owned and franchise venues, increased by 25% to £146m for the 12 months to the end of December. Direct sales for the year stood at £89.8m, a 12% year-on-year increase (2024: £80.4m). Moore said there were no plans to explore a third brand, saying it would be almost impossible to do right now “without taking our eye off the ball with Flight Club”.

Butlins CEO – Labour risks pricing families out of a holiday: Jon Hendry Pickup, chief executive of Butlins, has said that Labour’s plans to introduce a tourist tax threatens to price working class families out of a holiday. He has attacked the government’s proposals for a surcharge on overnight stays, claiming it would be “disastrous” for households and businesses. He told The Telegraph, that the tax, levied at around £2 per person per night, would effectively double the cost of a four-night stay for a family of four at Butlin’s in its cheapest room. “A couple of weeks ago, you’d be paying £49 for a family of four – so if you put £2 per person, that suddenly becomes out of reach of a bunch of people in the UK,” he said. “It is designed to target short stays like Airbnb and does not account for the variety of business models in the visitor economy. I hear messages from the government saying they’re going to focus on the cost of living, but then they impose a holiday tax on British people travelling to other parts of the UK. That’s the bit that’s frustrating for me.” The business, which turns 90 this year, has typically been a strong employer of young people and offers many young people their first experience of work. However, rising employer national insurance contributions, which formed the bulk of Labour’s £40bn tax-raising first Budget, have curtailed these opportunities. That is alongside successive increases in the minimum wage. Hendry Pickup said: “Historically, we would recruit people from 16 and onwards, possibly in their first job, and give them a skill set like lifeguarding so that they could move their way into the workforce. They might work nine hours a week on a Saturday, while they’re still at school, and that would work well for us. But it’s become substantially more expensive to recruit somebody at that age than it was previously.”

 

Luke Johnson-backed The Light closing in on Showcase’s UK venues deal: The Light, the cinema chain backed by serial sector investor Luke Johnson, is closing in on a deal to buy Showcase Cinemas’ UK business. The Sunday Times reports that The Light, which runs 13 venues across the UK in areas such as Bradford, Cambridge and Redhill, has been running the rule over Showcase’s 16 venues, including the 17-screen megaplex in Kent’s Bluewater shopping centre. Showcase’s UK business was put up for sale by owner Paramount last year, as the entertainment company moved to slim down its business. Reports have claimed that Showcase’s UK cinemas could fetch about £55m. There is no guarantee that a deal will take place, but talks are understood to be at a relatively advanced stage. If successful, a takeover would more than double the amount of cinemas controlled by The Light, which also owns boutique bowling alley operator All Star Lanes. Numerous other parties, including Mike Ashley’s company Frasers Group, are said to have been involved in discussions with The Light about a takeover of Showcase’s UK venues. Other rumoured names include the UK-based Vue and US-based cinema business Patton Vision. However, numerous bidders are said to have had concerns about a historic lack of investment in some of Showcase’s UK sites, and the amount of work that may be necessary if they are bought.

 

KKR and Pinewood owner Aermont join race to acquire Park Holidays: The global investment giant KKR and the owner of Pinewood Studios have joined the race to snap up Park Holidays, one of Britain’s biggest staycation providers. Sky News reports that New York-listed KKR is exploring a takeover of Park Holidays through one of its infrastructure-driven funds. It is up against rival suitors including Aermont, the majority-owner of Pinewood, and Park Holidays' former owner, ICG. The auction was initiated just four years after ICG offloaded the company for £950m to Sun Communities, a US-listed real estate investment trust. Park Holidays trades from more than 50 locations across the UK, including Dawlish in Devon, Felixstowe in Suffolk and Birchington in Kent. ICG bought Park Holidays for £362m in 2017 and expanded the business significantly during its four-year ownership period. Other possible suitors for the business are said to include Centerbridge Partners, which last year held talks about providing hundreds of millions of pounds to Parkdean Resorts. Bankers at Lazard are overseeing the process, which is expected to crystalise a significant loss for the current owner. In addition to the roughly £950m paid by Sun Communities in 2021, it subsequently bought back the freeholds to some of the company's sites. Industry sources have speculated that its total outlay on Park Holidays may have been as much as £1.2bn-£1.3bn, with bids expected to value the company at between £700m and £800m. A deal is expected to be agreed later in the spring.