Exclusive – The Access Group sees FY turnover top £1bn mark, sees hospitality as a growth opportunity: Software firm The Access Group, the parent company of ResDiary, Wireless Social and Guestline, saw its turnover top £1bn for the first time in the year to 30 June 2024, as it said that hospitality has become of one its “most compelling growth opportunities”. The company posted revenue for the year to 30 June 2024 of £1.007bn, up 19% on the previous year (£849,417,000), with an adjusted Ebitda of £412,483,000 (2023: £357,070,000). Across its hospitality division, the company almost doubled revenue in the year, from £64.7m in 2023 to £118.8m. The business, which works with the likes of Stonegate Group, Itsu, Young’s and Mowgli, said: “While the hospitality sector in the UK, Ireland and across Europe still faces immense challenges, green shoots are emerging with a number of dynamic concepts coming to market. A generation of entrepreneurs are keen to explore ways technology can improve operational efficiency and manage their customer relationships in an effective, relevant way. The key mission for the year ahead is to better serve the hospitality sector, become more collaborative, with customer needs coming first and foremost and building trusted relationships. We will continue to actively grow through acquisition, helping to shape our product portfolio into an industry-leading, AI-enabled platform.” The company paid £71m to acquire ResDiary in July 2023. For the period since the acquisition to 30 June 2024, ResDiary reported turnover of £14.2m and a profit of £1.3m. Access Group also acquired Guestline in July 2023, for £169.1m. In the period since acquisition to 30 June 2024, Guestline reported turnover of £31.4m, with a profit of £8.5m. Last January, the company acquired guest analytics business Wireless Social for £12.8m. In the period since the acquisition to 30 June 2024, Wireless Social posted turnover of £1.9m, with a profit of £400,000.  Chris Bayne, chief executive, said: “Our hospitality division also had an exceptional year – the division doubled its revenue, welcomed more than 500 new colleagues through mergers and acquisitions and recruited another 119 people globally. The division was also boosted by the acquisitions of Guestline and ResDiary and, looking forward, is set to become one of our most compelling growth opportunities.” 

Premium Club subscribers to receive next Who’s Who of UK Hospitality on Friday: The next Who’s Who of UK Hospitality will be released to Premium Club subscribers on Friday (21 March), at midday. Another seven companies have been added to the database, which now features 894 companies. This month’s edition will also include 52 updated entries. The companies, listed in alphabetical order, will have their most recent results reported as well as broader information around Ebitda, plans and trading style available. The database merges Companies House information, interviews and other public information to provide an easy to reference and exhaustive guide to the sector. Premium Club subscribers also receive access to five other databases: the Multi-Site Database, the New Openings Database, the Turnover & Profits Blue Book, the UK Food and Beverage Franchisor Database and the UK Food and Beverage Franchisee Database. All Premium Club subscribers will be offered a 20% discount on tickets to Propel paid-for events including Excellence in Pub Retail (May 2025) and discounts on specialist sector reports such as the International Brands report. 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 will be sent a dedicated monthly newsletter that will highlight key updates in the sector and direct subscribers to all the vital content their membership offers. Premium Club subscribers also receive exclusive opinion columns every Friday at 5pm, which include the thoughts of Propel group editor 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.

Every McDonald’s warned over staff sexual abuse: Every McDonald’s in Britain has been warned its owners could face legal action if they fail to take steps to protect staff from sexual abuse. The equality watchdog has written to all 1,400 branches telling them they must comply with their legal duties, or risk enforcement action, after a BBC investigation uncovered claims of a toxic culture of sexual assault and harassment. In January, McDonald’s workers said they still faced sexual harassment more than a year after its chief executive promised to clean up behaviour at the fast-food chain. McDonald’s said it was “committed” to doing everything it can to ensure a safe working environment for all employees. It added: “We are confident that the plan we have in place is working.” The BBC has exclusively seen the letter from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The BBC asked one current McDonald’s employee, who works for a franchise restaurant in southwest Scotland, for his reaction to it. He said he hoped the intervention would lead to “concrete change” for people like him. The letter from the EHRC called the allegations in our investigation “troubling” and noted there have been “repeated incidents”. The vast majority of McDonald's restaurants are run by franchises, which means individual operators are licensed to run the outlets and employ the staff. In February 2023, the watchdog entered into a legally binding agreement with McDonald's to prevent sexual harassment in its restaurants. But in its latest letter, the EHRC said all businesses in Britain, small or large, must comply with the Equality Act. “It is your duty to ensure that any anti-discrimination and harassment measures you currently have in place are effective, and to take any necessary steps to protect your workers,” the chief executive of the EHRC, John Kirkpatrick, told the restaurants. The letter sets out the “reasonable steps” that restaurants could take to prevent sexual harassment. These include regular risk assessments, ensuring younger and more vulnerable workers are properly safeguarded and ensuring complaints are dealt with sensitively and effectively through an established procedure. It added that any franchise restaurant that does not comply with its legal duties “may be at risk of enforcement action”.

Drinks tariffs will hit US jobs, Diageo tells Donald Trump: Diageo, the London-based drinks giant behind Johnnie Walker whisky, Guinness and Tanqueray gin, has warned Donald Trump that proposed import tariffs will put thousands of American jobs at risk. The Sunday Times reports that the US president’s protectionist policies — and related retaliatory tariffs from the likes of the EU and Canada — risk backfiring on the American economy, Diageo said in a letter to White House representatives that highlighted the importance of free trade in supporting US workers. “The ability of our US-produced products that utilise substantial US inputs to compete fairly in export markets is critical to Diageo,” the company told Catherine Gibson, deputy assistant US trade representative for monitoring and enforcement. “Likewise, Diageo’s ability to supply US consumers with iconic brands that must be produced overseas is essential to supporting US production, sales and distribution jobs, as well as the indirect benefits to the US economy.” US officials were told that Diageo supports more than 178,000 jobs in America, of which 11,500 are either direct Diageo employees working in production and sales, or in distribution roles. Diageo generates $1.5bn (£1.2bn) in alcohol excise duties for the federal government, the company said. Diageo’s North America representative, Alden Schacher, also argued that protectionism was not required because trade in spirits was largely reciprocal. This does mean, however, that a trade war could have a profound impact on multinational drinks producers such as Diageo. Last week, Trump threatened to impose a 200% tariff on wine, champagne, cognac and other EU drinks imports. This followed the EU’s announcement of €26bn (£22bn) of counter-tariffs in the wake of the US imposing a 25% levy on all steel and aluminium imports. Diageo wants the US to consider a crackdown on “rules of origin” requirements instead. The FTSE 100 company would like preference to be given to goods where the ingredients are “substantially sourced” from the US and other trade-agreement countries. This would benefit the US by virtue of shutting off a loophole whereby “foreign adversaries” use America’s strategic trade partners, such as Mexico and Canada, to “circumvent tariffs”.

Younger drinkers sour on bitter in favour of fruit-flavoured beer: Generation Z’s sweet tooth has led to fruit-led brews becoming the fastest-growing beer trend of the past 15 years, according to Tesco. The Times reports that Britain’s biggest supermarket chain said demand for these lighter beers had grown by 250% over the past year, shoppers choosing from flavours including mango, raspberry, passion fruit and citrus, often in IPAs but increasingly in lager as well. Drinkers in their twenties and early thirties were leading the trend and younger people were attracted to the fact that fruit beers are typically less strong than other beers, with a strength of about 4%. Fruit beers have long been popular in France, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy and are associated with “aftersport” refreshment, particularly skiing and cycling. Over the past 15 years, various European beers with fruity profiles have become more popular over here, such as the Belgian strawberry brews Fruli and Bacchus Kriek and, more recently, Radler, a shandy-style beer from Germany and Damm Lemon from Spain. But Tesco said the UK brand Jubel, which was launched in 2018 by Jesse Wilson and Tom Jordan, was driving the trend among those aged 21 to 35, with demand for its peach, mango, blood orange, lemon and grapefruit lagers up 300% in the past year.  Industry figures suggested Gen Z drinkers were more adventurous than older drinkers and wanted to try new flavours, unique styles and “Instagrammable drinks”. Ben Cole, Tesco’s beer buyer, said: “The demand for fruit-led brews, particularly lager, has taken the UK drinks market by storm and is the biggest trend to hit the beer scene since the craft boom started more than 15 years ago. The trend actually has its roots in the craft beer movement because it introduced beers with tropical fruit profiles to more drinkers than ever before. For many people, the craft movement changed the perception of what a beer could taste like and opened many drinkers’ palates to a wider range of styles.”

UK high street chains and restaurants challenged over refusal to accept cash: As more of us reject tapping and swiping, campaigners and politicians say the law should force retailers to accept coins and notes. The Observer reports that major high street chains and restaurants, including Gail’s bakery, Itsu and Zizzi, are being challenged by campaigners over their refusal to accept cash after a jump in consumers turning to notes and coins for daily spending. Following a steady decline in cash payments over the last decade, consumer groups say the cost-of-living crisis has seen more people turning to the traditional payment method for day-to-day spending. In 2023, 1.5 million adults in the UK were using cash for daily spending, a four-year high. Ron Delnevo, chair of the Payment Choice Alliance, which campaigns for the long-term future of cash services, said it was “completely unacceptable” that some stores were rejecting cash. The alliance wants new laws similar to those in some other countries requiring organisations and retailers to accept cash. “The vast majority of the public want cash to be honoured as a payment,” he said. “These businesses are letting down the public.” Delnevo said a survey conducted by YouGov in June 2023 on behalf of the alliance revealed that 71% of British adults would support a legal requirement for businesses to accept cash. Gail’s, which has more than 150 stores, says going cashless has “environmental benefits” in eliminating the need for cash collection and delivery. Itsu, which promotes “affordable, nutritious food” rolled out cashless payments after a successful trial, and Zizzi says it only accepts card and contactless payments for the “smoothest and fastest” payment experience.