Caterer and Hotelkeeper – 7217
WHEN, AND FOR HOW MUCH - or will it be bought?
THE main topic of conversation in the contract catering sector recently has been the likely date and price of Gardner Merchant's proposed stock market flotation, the hot favourite being this autumn at a price of about £600m.
In recent weeks - even before the company announced plans to spend $100m buying part of the Morrison's empire in the USA - the latest story doing the rounds (hotly denied by both parties) is of Gardner Merchant being bought by Granada and merged with Sutcliffe.
Is this really feasible? The difficulties involved in merging two such industry heavyweights became obvious when Gerry Robinson's former colleagues at Compass tried to do the same two years ago.
And will the Granada chief executive really be able to offer Garry Hawkes a high enough price to make him forego his moment of glory? Table Talk remains unconvinced.
cycling in the
fast lane
OVERHEARD in the restaurant atthe Hythe Imperial Hotel, where four Tour de France teams paused between their two British stages: "Did you know Chris Boardman had lost his yellow jersey?" said an Italian cyclist to his waitress. "No," she replied, "but has he asked at reception?"
REJECTing the VEGGIE OPTION
THERE were puzzled faces around the Table Talk desk when the Redwood Wholefood Company's press release for a new vegetarian product, Cheatin' Pepperoni, arrived, complete with a sample. We have yet to meet a vegetarian with a craving for pepperoni that doesn't contain meat.
Redwood came up with a good punchline, though: a letter followed - dated three weeks after the press release - warning us that the Pepperoni had been delayed at the sorting office, and advising us to dispose of it when it arrived. We certainly will, folks.
latest technology is UNLUCKY FOR SOME
A colleague from Farmers Weekly magazine was ready to settle in at the Warwick Hilton National before the Royal Agricultural Show.
Gremlins were at work, however: the key to the electronic lock on his bedroom door refused to work, as did a replacement offered by reception. Nothing for it, but to call someone with a master key. It failed.
Consternation, apologies and a large G&T on the house kept tempers in check while staff broke in through a window and assisted Bob's move to another room.The original room number? 113.
the comet that
lets the rain in
FREQUENT visitors to the Comet Hotel, Hatfield, Herts, may be alarmed by the dissapearance of the Comet Racer model aircraft from outside the hotel.
But they can relax. It's touched down again, after restoration at the hands of the University of Hertfordshire's division of mechanical and aeronautical engineering. One of the insults to the fibreglass model was that about two pints of rain-water had penetrated it, and in freezing weather this was causing cracks.
pork pie promise
FORMER cricket star Rachel Heyhoe Flint was the after dinner speaker at the LACA bash at the Moat House in Stratford-upon-Avon last week.
MsHeyhoe Flint told of a sign she had seen in the window of a butcher's shop in Devon, which read: "Try our pork pies - you'll never get better."
