Tuesday 2/6/15
Propelinfonews.com: Helpringham residents looking to buy Enterprise Inns pub: Residents in Helpringham in Lincolnshire are looking to buy their village. The Save Our Nags group, started and led by Mikaela Timmerhues, has put a temporary hold on the sale of The Nag’s Head, by owners Enterprise Inns, by having it listed as an asset of community value while they attempt to buy it. More than 50 people attended a public meeting to explain how villagers can run it as a not-for-profit co-operative pub, which was followed by a majority show of hands supporting and willing to invest, reported the Sleaford Standard. Pledge forms will now be delivered to houses around Helpringham to asses the level of interest in vesting. The Nags Head is still open for business under a short-term lease.
Wednesday 3/6/15
Propelinfonews.com: Spur Group debuts new RBW concept in Corby: South African-based multi-franchisor Spur Group, which operates 505 restaurants around the world including 318 Sput Steak & Grill and restaurants and 79 Panarottis Piza Pasta sites, debuted a new concept in Corby called RBW serving ribs, burgers and wings yesterday. it opened as part of a new cinema complex in Corby town centre alongside a Nando’s and a new Prezzo. The site is anchored by a new Savoy cinema being built by Mulberry Developments next to the Cuba. Once completed, the cinema will be capable of seating more than 900 people across six screens and will be fully digital and kitted out with the latest audio-visual technology.
Morningadvertiser: Licensees of the Year 2015 crowned
By Mike Berry, 02-Jun-2015
Husband and wife team, Keith and Diane Marsden from the Prince of Wales in Birmingham, have been named as the 205 Licensees of the Year.
Propelinfonews.com: Greene King beats target to raise £1.6m for Macmillan Cancer: Greene King has exceeded its £1m fundraising target by netting £1.6m for Macmillan Cancer Support over the last three years. Company employees have come together to raise funds for the leading cancer support charity, Greene king’s first national charity partner, since April 2012. Events have included donations on selected desserts from Greene King menus, which raised more than £150,000, while the company’s locals division has just completed its annual “Macmillan May” challenge. Pubs hosted events such as fun days, sponsored walks and raffles and it is hoped the initiative will beat last year’s total of £118,000. Greene King chief executive Rooney Anand said: “I am immensely proud of our team and our customers who have gone above and beyond what we had thought possible to raise £1.6m for Macmillan. When we launched our partnership in April 2012 we hoped that it would bring together our teams from right across the business, and the unique fundraising ideas, team spirit and support for Macmillan has been inspirational – every one of us is touched in some way by cancer, and hopefully we have done our bit to help Macmillan provide support to those affected.” The company has also made a £30,000 donation to the Woolverstone Macmillan Centre Appeal, which will help fund a new cancer treatment centre at Ipswich Hospital, near Greene King’s head office site in Bury St. Edmunds. Later this year, Greene King’s pubs and restaurants will get behind Macmillan’s flagship fundraising event, the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, for which they have raised £342,000 over the past three years.
JDW hits back over “inaccurate” comments on traveller case
by M&C Report, 03-Jun,2015
JD Wetherspoon Chairman Tim Martin has hit back at “inaccurate” newspaper coverage of the second case in a month in which the company had to apologise to a group of travellers.
Thursday 4/6/15
Propelinfonews.com: Charles Wells and Chris Gerard to open second Apostrophe Pubs outlet next month: The Bedford brewer and retailer Charles Wells and Chris Gerard of Innventure are to open a second outlet under the Apostrophe Pubs name on 13 July. It follows the success of their first venture, the d’Parys in Bedford, a £1.3m 14-bedroom boutique hotel. The Merlin’s Cave in Chalfont St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, will create 40 jobs with Gerard employed once again on a consultancy basis. Craig Mayes, director for Apostrophe Pubs, said: “We are growing a collection of individual pubs which celebrate the history of their locations and the people they serve, so you can expect to see chalk and oak from the Chilterns, open fires, patinas and ochre within the design at the Merlin’s Cave.” The pub’s new head chef Peter Wallace, has cooked for the royal household, as wells as a number of gastro pubs and restaurants across the country.
Friday 5/6/15
Propelinfonews.com: City Pub Company bids for third Cambridge pub: The City pub Company is bidding to open a third site in Cambridge – it already runs The Mill in Mill Lane and The Cambridge Brew House. The company, led by Clive Watson, wants to open news premises at the former Howes Cycles site in Regent Street. Downing College is among those objecting to its licensing bid. Will Smith, chairman of the city’s branch of the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA), told the Cambridge Evening News: “I think it’s very encouraging that companies like the City Pub Company would like to increase the number of pubs in the city and I think they’re entering into it with the confidence that the city council will look after pubs, as they have done over the past two, three, even five years. I guess it could be a renaissance – I very much hope it is.”
Golf Club Management: Nairn loses £185k green fee VAT repayment case: A private members’ golf club has lost a VAT repayment claim about in which it called for the government to pay back £185,ooo in taxes. Hundreds of golf clubs have been paid millions of pounds this year following a 2013 European Union ruling that VAT should not have been applied to their visitors’ green fees. However, this is believed to be the first case where a golf club has failed to receive a windfall – and it is probably due to a technical misunderstanding with the law. Nairn Golf Club in Scotland was seeking repayment of VAT on visitors’ green fees and, according to The Press and Journal, lodged an appeal to force HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to make a decision on its claims between October 2007 and September 2013, which amounted to more than £185,000. HMRC disputed the case, stating that the claims thereafter were invalid as they were outside of the set time limit and that the claims thereafter were also invalid “because there was no decision to contest” for that period. This led to a tax tribunal hearing in Inverness earlier this year. The club’s treasurer Bill Young, of accountant Ritson Young, insisted the claims were valid because they were amendments to an earlier claim made in 2009. But the tribunal judge Anne Scott has now rejected the appeal. She ruled the club had no appealable decisions for the period between January 2010 and September 2013, and struck out its claim for repayment of VAT. The club’s appeal on claims for the period between October 2007 and December 2009 was also struck out. “The club had believed that when its claim for repayment of VAT in 2009 was suspended nothing else needed to be done pending a decision in a spate case which would give guidance on the way their claim should be handled,” states the paper. Read More
Propelinfonews.com: Nando’s to join Wetherspoon as new arrival in Huntingdon: Nando’s is lining up a new opening in Huntingdon where JD Wetherspoon is also opening its first pub with a new-build stand-alone hotel. Nando’s is to take over the former Blockbuster video outlet at the Towerfields leisure area off St Peter’s Road. A spokesman for the firm confirmed that the restaurant would be opening in the “late summer” although it was too early to give a date or how many jobs would be created. The firm has applied to Huntingdon District Council to alter the blockbuster building and to put up signs.
Propelinfonews.com: Nottingham BIB outlines five-year plan: The Nottingham Business Improvement District (BID) has launched its business plan outlining what it will do for the next five years, should Nottingham city businesses vote yes to a second term of the organisation in the balloting period that takes place this month and concludes in July. The renewed Nottingham BID will expand the area that it covers and, for the first time, include businesses in the office and educational sectors as well as those in the retail and leisure areas. It will also reduce the levy that members pay from 1.33% to 1.25% and raise the threshold above which businesses must pay the BID levy from £15,000 to £25,000. This aims to ensure that the city’s businesses are better represented by the BIB in terms of geological and sector coverage and to relieve financial pressure on smaller businesses. The Nottingham BIB’s vision for its second term is to transform Nottingham into a regional and national city of choice for shopping, leisure, work and study. This vision will be realised by concentrating on four key strategic areas: Promoted City, Independend City, Working City and Managed City.