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ON-TRADE NEWS
“standfirst”>Four Seasons takeover, Bill gates and Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal made a successful takeover bid for luxury hotel chain Four Seasons…Green & Blue expands, Independent wine merchant Green & Blue has recently expanded its store in…
Four Seasons takeover
Bill gates and Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal made a successful takeover bid for luxury hotel chain Four Seasons last month. The £1.75 billion offer was made in November last year, and was recently approved by the Four Seasons board. Isadore Sharp, founder of the Canadian hotel chain, will keep a 10% stake in the company. He believes that the deal will help to preserve the chain’s “long-term strategy, vision and core values”. Four Seasons currently consists of 74 hotels around the world. Prince Alwaleed’s bid is being made through Kingdom Hotels International, while Gates’s will be via Cascade Investment LLC.Gates’s last foray into the hotel market was in 1998, when he purchased a hotel in Buckinghamshire, which he later sold.
The deal still requires two-thirds approval from shareholders, which is expected next month.
Green & Blue expands
Independent wine merchant Green & Blue has recently expanded its store in East Dulwich, London, which allows for a greater focus on on-trade sales. According to director Kate Thal, the intention is for the ratio between on- and off-trade sales “to eventually be 50/50, hopefully by December this year.”The bar area has increased from 20 to 45 covers. All the food in the store’s new deli will be available to on-trade customers as well, but Thal has confirmed that the retailer will continue to offer “chippage”, where customers pay a small fee to bring their own hot food in. The store’s drink selection will not significantly increase, aside from the addition of six beers. “The wine selection will increase slightly, but it’s important to our philosophy that we don’t want people to be stressed by a massive selection,” explained Thal. The expanded site provides greater potential for expansion to other sites, continues Thal. “The original site couldn’t fund expansion, but now we can. We were looking at other sites, but this expansion was marginally cheaper.”
Thal plans to open a new store by the end of next year.
Hakkasan heads to Istanbul
Michelin-starred restaurant Hakkasan has plans to set up shop in Istanbul later this year.The London-based Chinese restaurant, created by Alan Yau, has booked a place in the new Kanyon shopping centre in Istanbul. Yau was quoted by Turkish publication Hürriyet as saying, “I trust Istanbul; I am going to bring Hakkasan restaurants here too.” The paper also reported that Yau’s Turkish wife had influenced his decision. If all goes according to plan, the new restaurant will be open in June this year.
Another of Yau’s creations, Wagamama, has also booked a place in the fashionable shopping centre, which houses about 170 boutiques, stores and restaurants. The shopping mall, including the four-storey emporium and 179 residential apartments, opened last year.
Latest openings
The breakfast Group’s latest venue opened last month in London’s Soho. Punk is a West End nightclub that intends to “take West End nightlife in a new direction”. In addition, the group promises “sex workers and sex slaves and carpets used in a way not seen anywhere before”. On the practical side, the venue has a late licence and a capacity for 270. This year will see two new Gaucho Grill restaurants open in London. The next incarnation of the South American grill restaurant will open in Richmond next month, followed by a Tower Bridge outlet in May. The chain will then consist of 10 London venues, as well as one in Manchester. The Gaucho in Richmond will cater for 100 people indoors, with enough space for another 150 outside. The Tower Bridge venue will have a capacity for 140 covers inside, as well as 24 outside. The Gaucho chain was bought last year by Phoenix Equity Partners. The Opera House in Boscombe, Bournemouth (pictured below) is due to reopen in June, but images have been released that show what the multi-million pound renovation will look like. The venue will feature an Art Deco-style interior, with period features dating back to 1895. The main auditorium, in addition to providing space for concerts, will be suited to banquet-style dining.
The Three Crowns is a newly-opened gastropub in London’s Stoke Newington. The building was originally built as an inn in the 1570s, and after several incarnations has now been refurbished, offering a changing lunch and dinner menu, as well as classic cocktails.
© db March 2007