1997
January
The hospitality industry says yes to the minimum wage in a survey by Marketpower/Caterer & Hotelkeeper. But, while staff believe £4.29 is appropriate, employers opt for £3.60.
Shaw Catering, the UK's largest private contract caterer, is bought by Granada Food Services for a rumoured £12m.
Hilton International, owned by Ladbroke Group, and US-based Hilton Hotels Corporation formalise the agreement to reunite the Hilton name after 32 years of separation.
Celebrity chef Gary Rhodes (left)opens City Rhodes, backed by Gardner Merchant, the contract catering giant that Rhodes joined in late 1996.
Gordon Ramsay is awarded two Michelin stars for his London restaurant Aubergine, but the Greenhouse, Four Seasons Hotel and Fulham Road, all in London, lose their stars following the departure of their head chefs.
Hilton Hotels Corporation launches a $6.5b (£4b) hostile takeover bid for ITT Corporation which owns the Sheraton hotel chain.
Contract caterer High Table acquires rival Hallmark Executive Catering for an undisclosed sum.
February
The beginning of a change in attitude to hotel restaurants is signalled by the arrival of US concept Nobu at the newly refurbished Metropolitan hotel on Park Lane, London.
Following two years of talks on harmonising hotel grading across the UK, the English Tourist Board, AA and RAC choose one scheme and the Scottish Tourist Board (STB) pursues an-other. The STB argues that quality deserves greater importance than facilities in hotel grading.
Following a Michelin star award for Maison Novelli, chef-proprietor Jean-Christophe Novelli buys a site in Notting Hill Gate which opens in March as Novelli W8.
Queens Moat Houses sells 25 UK hotels for £91.5m to a management buy-in team. The hotels were expected to net more than £100m.
Granada Group sells its Welcome Break motorway service areas for a stunning £476m to Bahrain-based Investcorp. The City is shocked by the price. Newly installed chairman Michael Guthrie is confident of success.
Marriott International pays $1b to acquire the Renaissance Hotel Group, but says Ramada and Renaissance hotels will maintain their independence.
Sir Rocco Forte returns to the UK hotel industry following the purchase of the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh. Forte's company, Sir Rocco Forte & Associates, pays about £35m for the property and has the pleasure of seeing Granada ousted as managers. The Balmoral is the first RF Hotels acquisition.
March
Granada-owned Forte Hotels abolishes the post of general manager in a radical shake-up of a traditional post. Forte claims it is not a cost-cutting exercise; general managers and others are sceptical.
Hoteliers and restaurateurs in west Hertfordshire and north London demand compensation from their local water company after mains supplies are infected with cryptosporidium bacteria. Three Valleys Water accepts no liability.
The 20-strong Pizza Piazza restaurant chain is sold by Whitbread to a management buy-in team led by Ivan Taylor for £11.25m.
April
Jarvis Hotels puts six of its smaller hotels on the market, demonstrating its commitment to larger properties to give shareholders the best returns.
The Old English Pub Company buys Country Style Inns from Glenchewton for £10.8m.
Professor Hugh Pennington publishes his report on the outbreak of E coli food poisoning in Scotland, and claims food safety regulations have been implemented with too much of a "light touch". Although the outbreak centred on a butcher, caterers are warned not to disregard the report.
Forte Hotels hits the headlines again as Peter Stephenson, managing director of Forte UK Hotels, resigns and it emerges that a package of 30-plus hotels is being discreetly marketed. Stephenson's shoes are filled by Stephen Poster who claims the abolition of the general manager position is about managing resources more cleverly.
Cuisine from North Africa makes its mark on the London food scene as Momo opens in Heddon Street. Owner Mourad Mazouz brings traditional cuisine from Morocco to London.
City Centre Restaurants pays £12.75m for 90% of Est Est Est Restaurants and announces plans to expand the 13-strong group with 50 new openings.
Regal Hotel Group pays Whitbread £64.5m cash for 13 Country Club hotels only a year after its acquisition of 60 White Hart hotels. Regal soothes investor concerns saying capital expenditure will be kept to a minimum.
May
The Labour Party is elected with an overwhelming majority and Tony Blair forms the first Labour Government since 1979. Labour has promised a Low Pay Council, a minimum wage, signing up to the Social Chapter and getting 250,000 under-25-year-olds off welfare and into work. The industry holds its breath.
Sir Terence Conran's latest venture, Bluebird restaurant and food market, opens.
Another high-profile chef moves in to boost the F&B of a hotel, as Bruno Loubet and Swedish baron Otto Stromfelt form a joint venture to revamp the four-star Chelsea Hotel's food and beverage operation. Later in the month Loubet departs from L'Odéon and Bruno Soho, the London restaurants he launched with Pierre and Kathleen Condou.
Brand protection is the name of the game as two high-profile restaurateurs set out to prove. Michael Gottlieb, proprietor of Café Spice, fails in his bid to prevent the opening of Soho Spice in Wardour Street. Amin Ali's concept, alleges Gottlieb, copies Café Spice.
Sir Terence Conran (below)has more success in winning an injunction preventing Vince Power, owner of the Mean Fiddler bars, from using zincbar and affiliated words. Power opened Zincbar in north London in December 1996, more than a year after Conran registered the trademark Zinc.
Following the trend of large contract catering firms acquiring smaller, niche outfits, William Baxter and Robert Platts sell Baxter and Platts to Granada Food Services for a reported £15m, and National Leisure Catering is bought by Letheby & Christopher for £11m.
Rules head chef Rory Kennedy dies following head injuries received from falling down stairs leading to the restaurant's kitchen. At the October inquest a jury returns a verdict of accidental death.
June
Chef Alain Baxter becomes the first person to be jailed for selling food unfit for human consumption under the 1990 Food Safety Act following an outbreak of salmonella which poisoned 224 guests at a wedding reception.
Egon Ronay quits his consultancy role with the hotel and restaurant guides that bear his name amid rows over payment between the producers of the guides and the guides' inspectors. The move is a sign of trouble ahead.
Granada Food Services pays £8.4m for the healthcare, defence, and business and industry catering interests of Pall Mall Services Group, taking its overall combined turnover to £669m.
The much-trumpeted Rainforest Café opens on Shaftesbury Avenue. Glendola Leisure plans to develop five cafés in the UK and Ireland during the next 10 years.
The Government says it will consider proposals that caterers be strictly licensed in a bid to reduce food poisoning and restore public confidence.
Marco Pierre White opens his latest restaurant, MPW at Canary Wharf while rumours abound he is to take over the Oak Room in London's Le Méridien hotel.
The longest ever English libel trial, between McDonald's and Dave Morris and Helen Steel, ends with McDonald's being awarded £60,000. McDonald's claims it was worth the effort to save its reputation, but many question the damage the high-profile case did to its public relations.
July
The wave of top chefs heading into hotel restaurants builds as rumours begin that Raymond Blanc will install a second Petit Blanc at the Queen's Hotel in Cheltenham. Final confirmation comes in October.
The IRA announces a ceasefire, bringing hope to hoteliers in Northern Ireland for an upsurge in business.
Global InfoCom, producer of Egon Ronay's Guides, is taken to court by an inspector for non-payment of fees, casting doubts on the finances of the company.
British Airways' (BA)plans to sell off its catering division cause problems for the carrier, as the Transport and General Workers Union votes to strike.
August
Andrew and Lisa Radford open Blue Bar Café in Edinburgh amid huge media interest. Sales for the first two weeks exceed budget by £20,000.
British beef goes back on the menu for schoolchildren in Kent, Shropshire and Lincolnshire, signalling increasing confidence in the measures and controls in place after the BSE debacle.
Egon Ronay launches legal action to close Leading Guides International (formerly Global InfoCom) and the bailiffs seize Leading Guides' offices.
Antony Worrall Thompson's launch party for Woz is gatecrashed by thieves who steal a woman's Rolex in the latest incident of wealthy hotel and restaurant patrons being attacked in London's West End.
Marco Pierre White signs a deal worth £2m with Granada, in which he takes on the running of seven Forte hotel restaurants. White leaves the Hyde Park Hotel to take over the cooking at Le Méridien's Oak Room and will oversee the running of the Grill Room at the Café Royal. Executive chef Herbert Berger's position was made redundant following the introduction of cook-chill methods for banqueting at the Café Royal.
September
For the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, many restaurants and pubs close down or delay opening times until after the service at Westminster Abbey.
Leading Guides International, publisher of Egon Ronay's Guides, places itself into members' voluntary liquidation and speculation mounts that Egon Ronay will buy the guides.
As the Scots vote for devolution, hoteliers and restaurateurs are divided over how it will affect them, especially the tax-raising powers the Scottish Parliament will have.
Holiday Inn Worldwide, franchisor of Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express, is renamed Holiday Hospitality.
October
Gardner Merchant acquires rival Marriott Management Services for £30m.
Allied Leisure continues its expansion in the fast-food markets, snapping up 29 Burger King restaurants sold from receivership. It had already acquired seven in April for £2.9m.
Egon Ronay wins control of his eponymous hotel and restaurant guides and says he will publish in March 1998.
Gate Gourmet, a sister company of Swissair, buys BA's in-flight catering production operation at Heathrow for £65m. BA employees transferring to Gate Gourmet are guaranteed extensive benefits as part of the deal.
Another event caterer is swallowed as Gardner Merchant buys Lawson Beaumont for £2.5m from the Breakfor the Border Group .
Chain restaurants in hotels are the latest quick fix for poor F&B results. Holiday Hospitality signs a deal with the Restaurant Partnership to run Nico Central restaurants in selected hotels, Stakis pilots Bar Bacoa, and Forte Hotels announces deals with Mongolian Barbeque and City Centre Restaurants' Garfunkels.
Jean-Christophe Novelli takes over the management of Les Saveurs in London's Mayfair in partnership with Rocco Forte's RF Hotels. Meanwhile, Novelli EC1 opens.
November
The government announces plans to join the European single currency after the next election, which is widely welcomed by the industry, although some worry tourism will suffer from the delayed entry.
Jerry Brand, formerly of Russell & Brand contract caterers, opens the first of a chain of high-street restaurants, called Orange Balloon, in Tonbridge, Kent. Brian Turner is consultant chef for the project.
Relais & Châteaux marketing consortium wins a landmark European Commission ruling banning its members from joining other organisations.
The board of ITT Corporation announces approval of the £6b takeover bid by US firm Starwood Lodgings, effectively ending Hilton Hotels' hostile bid.
Britannia's Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool shoots into the national spotlight in the BBC's fly-on-the-wall series, Hotel.
Nick Nairn opens Nairns, an 80-seat restaurant in Glasgow, with his brother.
Hospitality is one of 12 pilot industries trialling the Government's New Deal initiative. Employers will receive £60 a week for six months and a one-off training grant of £750 for every young unemployed person they hire.
Robert Peel resigns as chief executive of Thistle Hotels after 20 years in the position following the downgrading of Thistle profits. Industry watchers expect Peel to resurface in the new year with his own hotel company.
Granada announces a 35% increase in group pre-tax profits to £650m. Chief executive Charles Allen partly credits the "clustering" approach adopted at Forte hotels. The reduction of Forte staff by 250 saved £7.6m for Granada.
Catering workers stand to gain compensation as the Government accepts its Tory predecessors broke European law on workers' rights. Up to 750 public sector catering employees were transferred to the private sector during the 1980s, and staff lost out on pay and conditions.
Hospitality trade associations fail in their attempt to secure exemptions from the minimum wage. The Minimum Wage Bill is published, making it clear there will be no exemptions for the hotel and catering industry, or for regional differences.
December
The government bans the sale of beef on the bone, including t-bone steak and oxtail, outraging chefs, although the RAGB says trade will not be affected. But the industry asks where it will end when the EU warns of a BSElink with lamb and mutton, affecting chops and rack of lamb.
Jarvis Hotels is on the acquisition trail with £80m for growth in 1998. Despite denying its interest in Hanover International, the company says it is looking at small hotels.
The TUC says it will expose bad employers following more than 1,000 calls in a week to its hotline complaining of long hours, poor pay and bullying.
