in brief

Hanbury grows

More than £5m is being invested in a 65-bedroom extension at the Marriott Hanbury Manor Hotel and Country Club in Hertfordshire, taking the total number of rooms to 161.

Choice Qualities

Choice Hotels has turned the former Chasley hotel in Newcastle upon Tyne into a Quality hotel. The group has also opened its first Quality hotel on the Isle of Man, the former Castle Mona hotel, in Douglas.

Carlton modernises

Edinburgh's Carlton hotel, owned by Paramount, is to undergo a £7m, three-phase modernisation programme. The bedrooms will be refurbished, and a new boardroom will be built.

Chefs for Charity

1999 National Chef of the Year Bruce Sangster and fellow chef Brian Turner led part of the Scottish Culinary Olympics team in a gourmet dinner on 2 September at the Swallow hotel, Dundee, to raise money for cancer research.

One potato, Two

David Walker has been reappointed as chairman of the British Potato Council for a further three years. His salary will be £54,743 a year for a three-day week.

Ultimate profits

Ultimate Leisure, the Alternative Investment Market-listed pubs and café-bars operator, plans to expand outside its Newcastle base and is looking for sites in Leeds. It has opened eight units since its flotation in July 1999, bringing the estate to 19. Pre-tax annual profits to the end of June rose by 48% to £3.2m from a turnover of £12m.