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Food and support services provider Compass Group Ireland has announced a new partnership with food business The Happy Pear, which will see the former company introduce the latter’s branded dining experience at its client sites.

The partnership will involve an initial rollout of The Happy Pear dining experience, which includes a selection of vegan and vegetarian offerings as well as signature sandwiches, salads, soups and hot food bowls, at five workplaces in the Compass Group Ireland network.

The Happy Pear hand-roasted coffee and cakes will also be made available at Compass Group Ireland foodservice locations.

“Thrilled”

The Happy Pear co-founder David Flynn stated, “We are thrilled to announce this partnership with Compass Group Ireland. This allows us to share our food to a wider audience, bringing health, happiness and community to those in the workplace. Partnering with Compass Group Ireland will allow us to deliver wholesome, healthy food to more of Ireland’s workers.”

“Championing Sustainably-Sourced Local Produce”

Meanwhile, Compass Group Ireland managing director Chris Chidley commented, “The Compass Group Ireland food philosophy focusses on championing sustainably-sourced local produce and delivering warm and welcoming service. The partnership with Happy Pear complements this, and we’re excited to bring their passion and ethos to enhance our offering to workplaces across Ireland.

“This partnership comes at a time when our customers are looking for a greater selection of healthy offerings. The growth in veganism and flexitarian diets in Ireland means we need to ensure our offerings are meeting the needs and wants of those in the workplace. We look forward to continuing our commitment with our partners, The Happy Pear, and delivering the best innovative food concepts to all our clients.”

The Heritage hotel of Killenard, Co. Laois, has been officially re-launched following the completion of a €3 million refurbishment and rebrand.

FBD Hotels & Resorts acquired The Heritage almost a year ago and subsequently commenced a major refurbishment of the property’s ground floor and created a new brand identity that allows the revamped Heritage hotel to fit into the FBD Hotels & Resorts portfolio.

As part of the refurbishment, the venue’s ground floor bar, restaurant, afternoon tea space and ballroom were all upgraded.

The hotel’s spa and leisure centre have also been upgraded, and together now feature 7,000 square metres of treatment rooms and a thermal suite.

“An Important Moment”

The Heritage’s general manager, Ger Alley, stated, “This is an important moment for The Heritage. Since FBD Hotels & Resorts took over this hotel, there has been a lot of change with the reinvestment and refurbishment taking place. Getting to this point today wouldn’t have been possible without the support and energy from the team here at the hotel.”

Alley added, “This is an exciting time for The Heritage, and we look forward to welcoming existing and new guests to the hotel in the coming future.”

Dublin’s Paramount Hotel has hit the market along with its bar, Turk’s Head, via commercial real estate services firm CBRE with a guide price of €25 million.

Located on the capital’s Parliament Street, the Paramount Hotel includes 66 bedrooms.

“An Outstanding Opportunity”

The Irish Times quotes Paul Collins of CBRE’s hotel and licensed division as saying, “The sale of the Paramount Hotel offers Irish and international investors an outstanding opportunity to acquire a prime hotel in a key international capital city. Established hotels in Dublin city centre hotels rarely come to the market and this sale is especially significant as the Paramount Hotel is being offered with the benefit of full planning permission for additional rooms.

“The successful purchaser will have the choice to continue trading under the already well-established and independent Paramount Hotel name or an international hotel brand. Many international hotel companies are extremely eager to establish a flagship presence and their brand in the Dublin city centre market.”

Five Lamps has officially opened the Five Lamps Dublin Brewery and Visitor Centre in Dublin on the first floor of Camden Street’s new The Camden venue.

Guided by local experts and characters, visitors to the new brewery will hear tales of the Dublin city streets where Five Lamps was born and watch a short film entitled “A Love Letter to Dublin”, which stars Imelda May, who shares what it means to be a proud Dubliner today, before the tour finishes with a beer tasting of the full Five Lamps range.

Five Lamps master brewer William Harvey will brew seasonal beers onsite and will use the brewery as his experimental kitchen to grow, develop and perfect Five Lamps beers.

The Five Lamps Brewery also features a gift shop that sells Five Lamps merchandise and Dublin-themed memorabilia.

“Delighted”

The brewery’s general manager, Ross Bissett, stated, “As ‘the beer of Dublin’, we are delighted to create a Five Lamps Dublin Brewery and Visitor Centre in the heart of the city. Here, in our spiritual home, visitors will experience the culture, heritage and authenticity of Five Lamps. These qualities define the essence, flavour and character of our handcrafted beers. Steeped in local history and respectfully restored, this iconic city centre location represents our defining qualities. This is an appropriate setting for us to welcome visitors and share our story, showcase our passion for handcrafted brewing and experience the authenticity of Five Lamps.”

“An Exciting Prospect”

Meanwhile, Harvey commented, “It’s an exciting prospect to share my love for Five Lamps and handcrafted beer, which for me has long been a vocation. Quintessentially of Dublin and experienced through such an original brewery tour, visitors will leave with a deeper understanding of Five Lamps, the ingredients beyond the barley, yeast and hops, and gain a greater appreciation for the skill, inspiration and dedication that goes into creating our beer.”

Fáilte Ireland held a two-day “Taste of Place” training programme at Cork Institute of Technology on Tuesday October 22 and Wednesday October 23 for chefs and cooks from Cork, Kerry, Tipperary, Wexford, Limerick, Waterford and Carlow.

Chef Gary O’Hanlon gave cookery demonstrations and insights to the group at the two day event.

Fáilte Ireland developed the “Taste of Place” programme to help chefs and culinary teams to leverage the growing trend of tourists seeking out locally sourced dishes and the stories behind them by providing stand out local and seasonal cuisine.

The programme armed chefs with insights into how food motivates the tourist, provided them with the latest tourism trends and culinary concepts, and underlined the business benefits of sourcing locally.

Chefs and cooks responsible for food preparation, presentation and menu development also saw a variety of dishes demonstrated first-hand using local ingredients.

Ensuring “Visitors To Ireland Enjoy A Real Taste Of Place”

Fáilte Ireland food tourism manager Tracey Coughlan stated, “This new programme has been developed by Fáilte Ireland to ensure that visitors to Ireland enjoy a real taste of place and to support the latest three-year food and drink initiative, ‘Taste the Island’, by equipping chefs across Ireland with the knowledge on the power and benefits of using local produce to deliver an unforgettable visitor experience.”

“Thrilled”

Meanwhile, O’Hanlon commented, “I was thrilled to help deliver Fáilte Ireland’s ‘Taste of Place’ programme, and I commend their vision and drive in promoting local produce through the ‘Taste the Island’ programme. It was a pleasure to work with other like-minded chefs and culinary teams to reinforce the message how using quality locally sourced food and beverage can benefit their business and the overall tourist experience.”

The three-star Ardboyne Hotel and wedding venue of Navan, Co. Meath, has hit the market via licensed and leisure property specialists Lisney Morrisseys with a €3.5 million price tag.

Property Features

The Ardboyne includes 29 bedrooms, Hugo’s restaurant, the Kells bar, a banqueting suite that can accommodate up to 300 people, three meeting rooms and a former nightclub that has capacity for up to 450 people, as reported by The Irish Independent.

The Ardboyne also includes extensive car parking facilities and landscaped gardens.The closing date for offers for the property is November 21.

Several restaurants on the island of Ireland were honoured at the announcement of the Michelin Guide Great Britain and Ireland 2020 in London this week.
As reported by RTE.ie, Adare Manor’s Oak Room restaurant was awarded a new Michelin star, as was Bastion of Kinsale, which was praised for its “pared back cooking”.

Belfast’s Muddlers Club and Variety Jones of Dublin also received one star each.

Meanwhile, Aimsir Restaurant at Cliff at Lyons was awarded two stars; The Greenhouse of Dublin was awarded an additional star, bringing its total number of stars to two; the capital’s Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud retained its two stars; Enda McEvoy of Loam in Galway won a special Michelin Guide award for sustainability; and Jurica Gojevic of Adare Manor won the new Michelin Guide Sommelier Award.

Bib Gourmand

Additionally, Thyme of Co. Westmeath, Land to Sea of Co. Kerry, Uno Mas of Dublin city centre, Circa of Co. Dublin and Balloo House of Co. Down all received the Bib Gourmand distinction.

According to the latest industry survey from the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF), 57% of hotels have seen a fall in overall business levels compared to this time last year while 33% have seen an increase.

78% of the hotels surveyed by the IHF said that they have seen a fall-off in business from Great Britain compared to last year, while 60% reported a decrease in business from Northern Ireland. 64% of the hoteliers surveyed reported that the weakness in the value of sterling has had a negative impact on business levels while risks associated with Brexit have resulted in 73% of the hoteliers surveyed re-examining investment plans and taking a more cautious approach for next year.

36% of the hoteliers surveyed reported an increase in business from North America while 45% reported an increase in business from Irish domestic tourism.

Commenting on the survey’s findings, IHF president Michael Lennon said, “Irish tourism has been one of the great success stories of the economy in recent years, supporting 270,000 jobs and promoting balanced regional growth across the country. However, we are now at a crossroads and facing a number of pressing challenges including serious risks associated with Brexit, increasingly high costs of doing business in Ireland and ongoing difficulties in attracting visitors to the regions and extending the short tourism season. To help address these challenges, we are calling for additional supports from government to assist tourism businesses, including a restoration of the 9% VAT rate.

“Brexit is particularly challenging in light of our heavy reliance on visitors from the UK, which is even more pronounced for regional tourism businesses. A ‘no-deal’ outcome would cause enormous difficulties for the hotel sector, creating the prospect of a drop of over 10% in tourism revenues from UK visitors and a decline in Irish consumer sentiment, which would have a knock-on effect on domestic tourism activity.

“Furthermore, we continue to face increasingly high costs of doing business, which have been compounded by the government’s decision to increase the tourism VAT in last year’s budget. As a result, Ireland now has a higher rate of VAT on tourism accommodation than 27 countries in Europe with which we compete, making us less attractive as a destination.”

Product Development And Market Diversification

Lennon acknowledged the progress made in recent years in new product development and market diversification, including campaigns targeting higher spending visitors. He said that initiatives such as The Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s Ancient East and Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands offer significant potential for regional tourism growth. He stated, “They can play a vital role in lengthening the tourism season in parts of the country that currently lag behind. This is of critical importance to local economies where tourism is the primary contributor. These initiatives must be more adequately resourced. This requires an increase in government investment in tourism marketing and development.”

Tourism Satellite Account

The IHF said that it is continuing to press the government to introduce a Tourism Satellite Account within the Central Statistics Office (CSO) to provide a full analysis of the economic activity in the tourism industry and how much it contributes to each county throughout the country. Lennon asserted, “It will also provide independent verification to assist those who rely on the National Accounts, where tourism is not identified, to inform their deliberations on taxation and economic policy.”

It is being reported that Emerald Investment Partners (EIP) has been talking with potential operators for its planned acquisition of Copper Face Jacks.

As reported by the Sunday Business Post, while EIP would not confirm any sale, but several well-known operators in Dublin have been approached about the deal.

Potential Operators – The report suggested that Colin Dolan, owner of Cassidy’s in the city centre and Frank Gleeson’s Townhouse Leisure group have been contacted regarding the €40 million property.

Pat McDonagh, the Supermac’s businessman who also owns a number of hotels is also reportedly interested in the deal.

In its latest filing, the Jackson Court Hotel and Copper Face Jacks reported profits of €3.9 million.

Courts Service Creates Online System For Liquor Licence Applications
The Courts Service has created a new online system for pubs, restaurants and hotels to register for liquor and club licences.

Saving “Time And Money”
The Irish Times quotes Chief Justice Frank Clarke as saying, “The Courts Service plans to fully roll out the online e-licensing system over the coming year, saving solicitors’ firms, and ultimately clients, both time and money. That amounts to up to 50,000 transactions going from paper and attendance at an office to online.”
Through the new online system, premises can complete applications for liquor and nightclub licences online and potentially eliminate the need to attend District Court.
The system also grants free access to those who wish to see who holds a licence for any premises in Ireland.

Pilot Programme
The system has started with a pilot programme, which is being run in four counties before it’s launched nationwide in the first half of next year.