Under new management
Three-year deal
Eurest has won a three-year contract worth £250,000 in annual turnover to cater for 600 staff and provide hospitality services at chilled food distributor BOC Distribution Services in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire. Staff from the former in-house team have transferred to Eurest.
Costa milestone
Whitbread brand Costa has opened its 200th coffee shop, at 197 Brompton Road in south-west London. It negotiated a £98,5000 annual rent, plus a premium payment, through agent Healey & Baker. Costa, which has yearly sales exceeding £50m and sells three million coffees a week, is seeking another 50 sites.
Oriental conversion
Noble House Leisure is investing £900,000 to convert a listed church in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, into a Jim Thompson's Oriental Bar-Restaurant. It will open in mid-February as a 140-seat restaurant with bar for 300. The rent is £95,000 per year.
School's master
Paul Guise is the new owner of the Old Schoolhouse hotel in Berkeley, Gloucestershire. He paid slightly more than the £400,000 sought by agent Robert Barry & Co for the eight-bedroom, two-star hotel, converted from a chapel and a Victorian schoolhouse.