Hospitality industry launches mentoring initiative to fast-track female leaders: UKHospitality, executive search firm Odgers Berndtson, BT Sport and sector agency Elliotts have launched The Leadership Mentoring Programme to fast-track female leaders in the sector. It is the first industry-wide mentoring initiative to help female managers in hospitality and leisure break through to senior executive and board-level roles. The goal is to provide outstanding mentoring, advice and motivation to help women achieve their goals, especially women who work in small companies where formal support may be unavailable. UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said: “The vision behind this is to give talented women the empowerment and support they need to achieve leadership roles. We also want to build a network of senior mentors from across the hospitality industry to support the next generation of inclusive leaders.” Holly Addison, head of hospitality and leisure at Odgers Berndtson and a member of the initiative’s steering committee, added: “We want more women to believe in themselves and their ability to contribute at the most senior levels to the success of their organisations.” In a study published by UKHospitality and CGA earlier this year, more than four-fifths (82%) of respondents agreed there should be more women on leadership teams in the sector, while almost two-thirds (65%) believed it important to have a mentoring scheme in place. However, fewer than half (48%) had plans to implement one, with 71% saying a sector-wide initiative would help. Last month, Propel launched the Women’s Entrepreneur Conference in partnership with Elliotts chief executive Ann Elliott – the first sector conference to feature an all-female line-up. A total of 11 company founders shared their stories, tips and advice to inspire more women to set up their own business.

YO! Sushi trials To Go counters in Tesco: YO! Sushi has signed an agreement with Tesco to pilot YO! To Go counters at two UK stores. Under the agreement, YO! will operate a manned kiosk in each site creating made-to-order sushi and providing sushi to the front-of-store food-to-go range. The first of the two trial sites has opened at the Sunbury Extra store in Surrey, with the second site, Bournemouth Extra, opening next week. As well as the YO! To Go range and sharing platters, customers will be able to try new products such as Mini Ninja kids bento boxes, sushi snack boxes and dessert sushi rolls. The move sees YO! To Go branded products available for the first time outside the company’s in-restaurant proposition and builds on its Heathrow T3 and St Pancras sites where YO! To Go has a clearly defined section. YO! has 74 restaurants across the UK. Chief executive Richard Hodgson said: “This is an exciting move for YO! We have seen substantial increase in demand for to-go products over the past 18 months and developing our YO! To Go proposition is an important part of leveraging the expertise and capacity gained through the recent Bento and Taiko acquisitions. As consumers continue to look for high-quality, fresh and speedy food options, we are well placed as a global multi-channel, multi-format Japanese food platform to lead in making sushi more accessible, not only via restaurants but also kiosks and supermarkets.”