The S P F Blog

The troubled bar and restaurant operator has been bought by London-based investment firm Agilo. Agilo has acquired five of the company’s sites, in London, Leeds, Birmingham, Newcastle and Glasgow.

Sports Cafe was not the greatest of concepts to start with, but I’m always sad to see companies go bang. It certainly appears to be consolidation time again, lots of horror stories out there.

Sports Cafe founder Bill Balkou has made an approach to buy back the troubled bar chain which was forced to call in administrators earlier this month according to The Sunday Express. Sports Café reported interim sales of £7.8m last September, down from £9.3m the year before. Pre-tax losses rose to £767,000 in the first half from £57,000 a year earlier.

Cobra has acquired its first ever brewery in India. The group, owned by Lord Karan Bilimoria, has acquired a 76% controlling stake in Iceberg Industries. The purchase of its first brewery represents a significant development for the company as currently it only brews under licence in the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands and five further locations in India. morningadvertiser.com

‘Regent Inns reports that, since the AGM statement of Dec. 3 2007, it continues to experience more challenging market conditions against a background of a difficult consumer market generally,” the company said.’

 

It’s tough on the high street just now, and it looks like we are heading for a consolidation period in the pub sector.

Regent Inns have been part of my working life for some time and I will be incredibly sad if they cease to be. It happens though, when the economy tightens up it’s the leisure spend that gets hit first; it’s no surprise that pubs are suffering.

More as it happens, but it’s going to get ugly on the high street.