McDonald’s to cut 80% of vegetarian options: McDonald’s UK will axe nearly all of the vegetarian options from its menu next week due to poor sales of meat-free meals. The fast-food chain has said that it will stop selling Veggie Dippers, Veggie Dipper Happy Meals, Spicy Veggie Wraps and Vegetable Deluxe sandwiches in a decision which has left vegetarians furious. The only plant-based product which they will continue to serve is the vegan McPlant Burger, an offering which McDonald’s says remains popular. A McDonald’s UK spokesperson said: “We’re always listening to our customers to help inform and evolve our menu. After reviewing feedback, alongside the sales data of our Veggie Dippers, it’s clear this product does not match the appeal of McPlant for our vegetarian customers. That’s why we’ve made the decision to remove them from the menu from 3 February, as we focus on developing better vegetarian options that meet our high standards. While McPlant remains a firm fan favourite and will continue to be the go-to-choice for our vegetarian and vegan customers, we recognise these changes may be disappointing for some. We are actively learning from other markets to understand which vegetarian and vegan options are proving most popular and exploring exciting new offerings that we know customers will love.”

 

M&B-owned Pesto reports increase in like-for-like sales: Pesto Restaurants, the Mitchells & Butlers (M&B)-owned brand, has reported an increase in like-for-like sales across the 52 weeks ended 28 September 2025, driven by strong performances across the majority of its sites. It said that sales were boosted further by the addition of two new Pesto locations, which opened in April 2025 and September 2025 respectively. Revenue for the period was £21,418,000 (2024: £24,261,000) with a pre-tax profit of £1,841,000 (2024: 2,066,000). Taxation charged for the period was (£70,000) (2024: £537,000) leaving a profit after tax of £1,912,000 (2024: £1,529,000). The company was in a net asset position of £4,921,000 (2024: £3,010,000) at the period end. It said: “Operating profit reflects the continued recovery in profitability built on the strong sales performance coupled with an ongoing focus on cost control. We are pleased with our operating profit performance, which reflects resilience amid challenging conditions, particularly high inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, and fluctuating consumer confidence. The directors are pleased with the significant progress made with the Pesto brand throughout the financial period whilst the business has begun the full integration into the group. Over the period the company was able to improve its profitability through a combination of sales growth and benefitting from cost synergies emerging from the new ownership. The fundamental strengths of our business provide a platform for the future. We have a well-recognised brand covering a broad range of consumer occasions, demographics and locations, and an experienced and proven management team with the focus to build on the momentum previously gained. Sales growth remained strong over the accounting period ended September 2025, with consistent market outperformance which we expect to continue in FY 2026. We anticipate cost headwinds during FY 2026, driven by annualisation of labour cost increases, plus further increases in the statutory thresholds, and increased levels of food cost inflation. Despite continued cost challenges we believe that our strong market position will enable us to continue to outperform our sector.”

 

The Rank Group sees revenue and profit growth across all businesses: The Rank Group has said it has seen revenue and profit growth across all its businesses in the six months to 31 December 2025, with like-for-like Net Gaming Revenue (NGR) of £419.8m, up 6% year-on-year. It said that underlying like-for-like operating profit increased 15% to £40.6m during the period. Average NGR per week in Grosvenor venues was £7.8m, up 6% year-on-year. It said: “A strong Q1 was followed by a relatively softer Q2, with weaker consumer confidence in the period prior to, and immediately following, the autumn budget. Gaming machines were the fastest growing product vertical up 11% year-on-year, up 16% in venues which have benefitted from machine installations during H1.” The business said 850 additional gaming machines were installed across 37 Grosvenor venues in H1 2025/26, in line with the previously reported timetable. It said that H2 workstreams are in place to optimise the product offering and fine-tune venue layouts and gaming machine mix, supported by local marketing to build customer awareness and demand. Digital like-for-like NGR grew 9% in the UK with particularly strong growth in Grosvenor online. The business said mitigations to reduce the impact of the near doubling of Remote Gaming Duty (RGD) from 21% to 40% announced in the autumn budget, including cutting above the line media spend and TV sponsorships, have already been implemented or are well advanced. The company said: “Following a slightly softer Q2, the Christmas and New Year holiday period saw strong trading across all our businesses and January’s performance has been in line with expectations. The significant increase in RGD to 40% for the UK digital business, and the increase in National Living Wage in Grosvenor and Mecca, will impact profitability in Q4. However, the group’s mitigating actions to offset as much of this impact as possible are well advanced. Our strong H1 performance underpins our confidence in delivering full year performance in line with expectations. The group retains a clear path towards its target of delivering at least £100m annual operating profit in the medium term.” John O’Reilly, chief executive of The Rank Group, said: “We continue to deliver improving results which demonstrate the resilience of the group and our ability to take advantage of the opportunities available to us, both online and in our venues. Customers recognise the investment and improvements we have been making and are responding enthusiastically. Both the underlying metrics and medium-term outlook for the business remain encouraging, and we have the building blocks in place to capitalise on the opportunities ahead of us. The second half of the year will bring further cost headwinds, principally in our UK digital business, which will be impacted by the UK government’s huge increase in tax rates. We have already executed measures to mitigate some of this impact, whilst continuing to prioritise customer experience, and the group will respond with agility as a heavily disrupted landscape takes shape in the UK. As I retire as chief executive of Rank, I would like to pay tribute to my highly talented colleagues across the group for their enduring commitment to our customers which has again delivered another strong set of results. I am delighted that, as interim chief executive, Richard Harris will now take Rank to the next stage of what I am sure is a very bright future.”