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RPAS/LPF Event: The Future of the Restaurant Industry
Over 150 members of the RPAS and LPF gathered to hear an expert panel’s views on “The Future of the Restaurant Industry” on Wednesday 19th October at CBRE’s offices.
The panel was made up of Carluccio’s CEO Simon Kossoff, Mitchells & Butlers’ Property Director Gary John and Chilango Co-founder Eric Partaker, together with Westfield’s Rachel Belam and BDO’s David Campbell. Fleet Street Communications MD Mark Stretton chaired the debate, which covered the challenges faced by the restaurant market against the backdrop of the current economic climate and its prospects for growth.
The panel provided a range of insightful views on trading conditions, trends and issues such as discounting, as well as the leisure property market - both inside and outside London - the importance of new schemes and the Olympics.
MEMBERSHIP NEWS
We are delighted to welcome a number of new members to the RPAS (some old and new faces!) and there have also been a few members who've moved companies.
New members who have joined in the past few months are:
Nigel Costain - DTZ
Philip Sandzer - DeVono
Pippa Page - DeVono
Michael Burns - Gross Fine Commercial
Robert Lucy - Twenty Retail
Dan Davies - Tushingham Moore
Emily Sheridan - Grant Mills Wood
Members who have moved to new firms are:
Paul Breen - CBRE
Krishna Singh - Liberum Property
David Morgan - Morgan & Clarke
Dean Gambles - Coleman Dean
All members' contact details can be found on the website, just click on the 'Our Members' tab at the top of the page or go to: www.rpas.org.uk/member_companies
HNG's Simon Kelly Appointed RPAS Chairman at AGM
Hargreaves Newberry Gyngell’s Simon Kelly has been appointed Chairman of RPAS.
Kelly’s appointment, replacing outgoing Chairman James Grimes of AG&G, was formally announced at the recent AGM, held at Bombay café concept Dishoom, part of St Martin’s Courtyard in Covent Garden. Kelly is Head of Leisure and Retail Agency at Hargreaves Newberry Gyngell (HNG), a multi-disciplined firm of Chartered Surveyors based in the West End. Specialising in acquisitions, disposals, developments and leasing in the restaurant, pub and bar sectors, he has acted for a wide range of principals, operators, landlords and developers in the licensed, leisure and retail market over the past 25 years.
Some 60 RPAS members were present at the AGM, to hear from both the outgoing and incoming Chairman over lunch, as well as President David Coffer and Amar Radia of Dishoom. Amar gave a talk on the origin and design of the concept, as well as the process through which the concept was selected as tenant for the unit by landlord Shaftesbury, which had received a number of competitive offers from interested operators.
New members were welcomed, including Shelley Sandzer’s Camilla Topham, Tushingham Moore’s Dan Davies and DTZ’s Nigel Costain.
The Paul Benjamin Cup for Restaurant Deal of the Year was awarded to Andrew Bond of Nash Bond, for the letting of 51 Aldwych, London WC1 to Jeremy King & Chris Corbin for their second Wolseley operation. The pair has taken 13,380 sq ft within UK & European Investments’ 105,000 sq ft office development. The operation is expected to open in late Autumn 2011 and will include a restaurant and high class A1 café fronting onto Aldwych.
DINNER WITH RAYMOND BLANC
The RPAS Autumn Dinner was held on 22nd September at the recently opened Brasserie Blanc in the City of London. Nearly 50 members were in attendance to hear guest speaker Raymond Blanc OBE, who, in response to members’ questions, gave a passionate and entertaining talk that spanned his career; from the early influences of his family home in Besançon to launching his first restaurant in Oxford with a £12,000 loan in 1976, before going on to open to Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons, which has held 2 Michelin stars for 26 years. Many chefs trained at Le Manoir have gone on to earn Michelin stars elsewhere and Mr Blanc’s passion for training and promoting new talent clearly remains undiminished. He has most recently added the Good Food Guide 2011’s Lifetime Achievement Award to his many accolades.
Members also remembered Jeffrey Young, who sadly passed away in September. One of the founding members of RPAS, his loss to the sector is keenly felt.
GRIMES APPOINTED NEW RPAS CHAIRMAN AT AGM
James Grimes of AG&G has been appointed Chairman of RPAS, replacing outgoing Chairman David Muslin of CBRE.
The appointment was announced at the recent AGM, held at Mayfair’s Wild Honey. At AG&G James advises a host of licensed leisure operators and landlords including Mitchells & Butlers, Enterprise Inns, ETM Group and Glendola Leisure. He set up AG&G with two co-directors in 2000 and has worked in the industry for 20 years.
New appointments have also been made to the Committee; Nick Weir of Shelley Sandzer and Kate Taylor of Davis Coffer Lyons, who takes over the role of Press from Simon Kelly of HNG.
A number of new members were also announced, further swelling the ranks. RPAS is pleased to welcome the following new members:
Stephen Fixman (Stephen & Matthews)
David Bell (Savills)
Peter Polledri (Peter Polledri Property Consultant)
David Street (David Street Associates)
Margaret Walsh (Davis Coffer Lyons)
Simon Chaplin (Christie & Co)
Thomas Rose (Cushman & Wakefield)
Krishana Singh (Fleurets)
This year’s winner of the Paul Benjamin trophy for Restaurant Deal of the Year was Ross Kirton of Colliers CRE, for the disposal of the Pitcher & Piano in William IV Street, Covent Garden to Will Smith & Anthony Demetre of Arbutus and Wild Honey. The pair, who were represented by David Rawlinson of Restaurant Property, will launch an informal, European-style brasserie called Les Deux Salons on the site in the September.
RPAS Launch New Website
Long overdue and following the increase in membership over the past few years the RPAS committee are pleased to announce the launch of their new website www.rpas.org.uk to facilitate a more interactive use by all members and further promote the society as the leading specialist forum for both Restaurant and associated leisure advice.
The website designed by MSC Design will allow members to communicate, also a dedicated distribution system to alert each other of new property details and requirements whilst also having the facility to enable operators to upload there own requirements.
Industry news will also be provided via a daily and regular updated links courtesy of Hotel & Caterer.
RPAS MUSLIN ON THE MENU
At the recent Restaurant Property Advisors Society (RPAS) AGM, David Muslin of CBRE was elected Chairman for 2009/2010 taking over from Richard Negus of Fleurets after his year in the hot seat.
The AGM also saw the election of a new Committee for the coming year, with newcomers to the Committee being welcomed from the restaurant property world, Trevor Watson of DCL and Steve Bagatti of Selsian.
At the AGM, the Paul Benjamin Cup was awarded. Paul Benjamin was an active member of the Society and well known in restaurant property circles for many years until his death in 2007 after a battle with cancer. The trophy was donated by his family to be awarded on an annual basis in his memory for “restaurant deal of the year”. The award was voted on by the members at the AGM and was awarded to Alex Hill of The Leisure Partnership, who sold the Criterion Restaurant at 224 Piccadilly (previously Marco Pierre White’s restaurant) at a rent of £525,000 and a premium in excess of £1M. There was stiff competition for the award from two other transactions by Leslie Aarons and Seb Howard of CBRE.
The membership of the RPAS now stands at 95 members representing some 60 firms. New members during the year included:
Paul Bishton (Redleaf Ltd)
Samuel May (Brecker Grossmith)
Mark Calder (Restaurant Property)
Theo Fordham (Twentyretail)
Simon Jackaman (Penn Commercial)
Niall Sheridan (E A Shaw)
Neil Morgan (Christie & Co)
Paul Giligan (Kelion Sworn)
The AGM was part of a busy week for the RPAS with the society having held on Monday 20 April their annual industry event.
The 2009 event was a Question Time style forum – “Leisure Property - A Brave New World”, and saw a packed room debate with a panel of industry heavyweights questions such as:
“Are we at the bottom of the economic cycle or is there worse to come?"
"Are the banks really open for business or are businesses still finding that this is only 'window dressing'?"
"Has the leisure sector been damaged by the increasing numbers of pre-pack administrations?”
as well as a number of other hot topics from the Government to legal issues, the Olympics and future values.
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(Last added 07/02/2012)