Visitors spend tens of millions of pounds in restaurants in this Gloucestershire town
Efforts to showcase the food and drink sector in a Gloucestershire town are revealing a tantalising menu of exciting venues, and an economy worth tens of millions of pounds hidden in plain sight.
Dear readers,
We hope you had a great weekend. Welcome to the Monday edition of The Raikes Journal.
Last week our deep dive story into what it means to be a B Corp business did particularly well, which we like to think is a sign of our growing readership.
We’re being as counter-intuitive as possible in that respect, straying away from any news agenda, writing what we think is most interesting and looking to grow an audience not by aiming for as many clicks as we can, but by reaching people we think are important in our community.
We don’t just want to go to a launch event and write that ‘we’ve been to a launch event and that it was great’, we want to put it in some kind of context. Hopefully that is what we have done with the main article below.
It is built around the launch of this month’s Food and Drink Week in Cheltenham, but we wanted to look at the journey the town is on in terms of food and drink, who is driving it and why, and why it all matters. If you think the town has always had stand-out restaurants in abundance, then think again.
What was apparent to us from the launch was that both it and the forthcoming event are being driven by a united force, by incredible energy, trust, dynamic leadership, a lack of ego, but most of all a desire to showcase some incredible talent; Oh, and to have some fun while doing that too!
Hopefully we’ve captured a flavour of that, and whetted your appetite for the festivities ahead.
Please send us your stories/ideas about companies/people/issues you think we should write about. Email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk or telephone 07956 926061.
* Everything you read on The Raikes Journal is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors Hartpury University and Hartpury College, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to paid, you’ll be part of this community interest company too. In an era when local journalism is all but gone, we are dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire, to championing the county, in particular its businesses, charities, education and training providers, to defending it, challenging those who need to be held to account and to helping create an even stronger community. If you upgrade to paid you will be able to see past the paywalls on our second and third email editions of the week, that lock all our archive after two weeks and lock our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire, the series that follows the financial fortunes of our biggest firms by turnover. You will be able to comment on our stories too. You’ll be helping make this CIC sustainable. Please do join us.
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Vote for your favourites in the Believe in Gloucester Awards
After all the waiting, the shortlist of finalists has been revealed for this year’s Believe in Gloucester Awards, and you can now vote for your favourites and influence who will walk away a winner.
Staged by Gloucester BID, the awards are a chance to shine the light on the many talented businesses, individuals and charities across Gloucester. Raikes, for its part, is proud to call itself a media partner supporting the awards.
After taking suggestions from the public for entries judges compiled a shortlist across 13 categories before the summer, revealing their findings only now.
Emily Gibbon, manager of Gloucester BID, which represents city centre businesses, said: “We have already had 2,000 votes. All you have to do is go to the website, sit down with a cup of tea, tick on the winners you want to vote for, verfiy your email address so you can’t vote more than once, and submit your entries.
“You must do that before September 30 because that’s when voting closes!”
Congratulations go to Broomfield Care, Cass-Stephens Insurances, A Star Taxis shortlisted for Business of the year: to Lean On Me Care Services and Cosmic Tree, shortlisted for Small Business of the year; Gloucester Car Boot, Cauldron Creations, Home Helpers, Busy Creative Bees, shortlisted in New Business of the year; Ashley Paul, Beau Hair Studio, Kara Hair and Beauty and Fringe Benefits shortlisted for Hairdresser of the year; Hetty’s Place, Greek on the Docks and Coal Kitchen in Food Business of the year and Vinyl Vital Signs, Chez Rose and Norville Opticians in Retailer of the year.
In Bar or Pub of the Year there is Hop Kettle Gloucester Docks, The Fountain Inn and Our House; in Best Customer Service Award it’s Euro Change, The March Hare, Hetty’s Place, and Fringe Benefits; in the Sustainability Award you can vote for Gloucestershire College, Gloucester Willow Coffin Company and Roots Refills; in the Heritage or Regeneration Award it’s The Folk of Gloucester, Cathedral Quarter and Aqua Construction; for the best Community Project it’s Gloucester Feed the Hungry, The Folk of Gloucester and C2I Chapter One; in Event of the Year it’s Gloucester Goes Retro, Gloucester History Festival, and Gloucestershire Pride and in Charity of the Year it’s Catch a Smile, Charlie’s Community Support and Gloucester City Mission.
To vote, visit Believe in Gloucester Awards.
Your briefing notes
🏗️ A tech firm that’s already one of the biggest businesses in Gloucestershire by turnover has been revealed as the first big headline tenant to move its 250 staff into new office space at The Forum, the city centre’s £100 million-plus redevelopment between King’s Square and the bus station (sorry, Transport Hub!). Earlier today the PR team at Distinctive Communications that handles the media for the scheme for Reef Group, which partnered with Gloucester City Council to make the development possible, sent out the news to all its contacts. For Dorian Wragg of Bruton Knowles, the Gloucester firm charged with finding prospective tenants, Fasthosts’ agreement to relocate from elsewhere in the city is a huge vote of confidence in the scheme. Fasthosts is one of the companies tracked by our Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series in our Reports & Deals channel, sponsored by Randall & Payne. Its turnover for the year ending 31 December 2022 was £44 million, a growth of five per cent on 2021. Read the full press release here.
🥗 It was a brave move, but even in forward thinking Stroud it has proved a step too far. We are talking about Stroud Farmers’ Market’s vegan Sunday market - launched earlier this year to run once a month alongside its still ever so popular weekly Saturday market. Kardien Gerbrands, market manager for both events, told the Stroud Times website a lack of footfall meant the vegan event was now no more. It may not be entirely through a lack of interest. As he pointed out, the town’s main parking, the London Road multi-storey, is closed on a Sunday and that may have impacted people’s decision making. Read the full story here.
💻 If ever an event shows you just how vulnerable you can be to cyber attacks, it is the latest news from Tewkesbury Borough Council. In December 2021 Gloucester City Council was announcing it too was a victim. What then became apparent was the scale of both the impact and the bill to put it right - believed to be in the region of £1 million. The attack encypted its servers and prevented the council from providing regular services too. Despite all the warning signs that no doubt sent to other local authorities, it is now the turn of the borough council, which mercifully has apparently fared a little better. Officers contained the attack by shutting down systems and no personal data was breached, we’re told.
Visitors spend tens of millions of pounds in restaurants in this Gloucestershire town
Efforts to showcase the food and drink sector in a Gloucestershire town are revealing a tantalising menu of exciting venues, and an economy worth tens of millions of pounds - all hidden in plain sight.
By Andrew Merrell.
Regency Cheltenham; famous worldwide for its festivals, known for its retail therapy, its restaurants, bars and hotels too, and championed for its cyber, engineering and aerospace sectors, its professional services firms and more.
Those restaurants and bars, its food and drink element, may be relatively small in terms of turnover compared to those other areas of its economy, but they have become a most attractive jewel in the town’s crown in recent years, a fitting compliment its festivals and enhanced our quality of life.
And as the sector continues to grow those who run those food and drink businesses have begun to recognise just what they are part of – and that new-found consciousness means they now want to be heard around the tables of power.
Just how quickly it is emerging as a sector worthy of recognition, and how little attention it has recieved to date, becomes apparent when you try to find figures for the number of restaurants and bars, or how many jobs they support - as Raikes did for this article on the forthcoming Food and Drink Week.
“It is one of the frustrations that there is nothing that accurately sums up food and drink sector at the moment, but we are beginning to build some figures,” said Helen Mole, from Marketing Cheltenham and head of place marketing and inward investment at Cheltenham Borough Council.
It is Marketing Cheltenham that has joined forces with Cheltenham BID, Visit Cheltenham and the chamber of commerce to drive forward the seven day celebration of all things food and drink in the town that will run from 16 to 22 September.
What Mole does have, however, are some figures that firmly underscore just how significant the sector has already become and why herself and her colleagues are so determined to raise the profile of the food and drink sector in the town.
“We do know that tourism spend per year in Cheltenham is currently about £164 million and that it creates about four per cent of all employment in the town,” she said.
“And we can break it down a little for food and drink now. Spending by visitors on food and drink was £41 million in 2022.”
The visitor spend for Gloucestershire as a whole is about £1.1 billion a year and the county-wide spend on food and drink in 2022 was £325 million.
Helen Howe, who runs the restaurant Lumiere with her husband Jon, was at the launch of the Food and Drink Week in Montpellier, Cheltenham.
She estimated that the food and drink tourism spend at the Clarence Parade venue was about 50 per cent of its business.
If you take that as the case across the town, when you factor in spending from regulars, that suggests the £41 million figure could be twice that.
It is just part of the thinking that is driving a feeling among many that the sector they represent has been overlooked for too long and that needs to change.
“I don’t think how important we are together has really been properly recognised yet. Even the new economic partnership board lumps hospitality in with tourism,” said one of those present at this week’s launch of the food and drink week, planned to take place from September 16 to 22.
They were referring to the county council’s Economic Growth Board, that has replaced the local enterprise partnership GFirst LEP this year.
In its defence it does have a food and drink focus, Made in Gloucestershire, a campaign which is also backing the Food and Drink Week, but the sentiment is perhaps a sign of how fast change is happening and how many more conversations still need to take place.
In Cheltenham, the collective consciousness of those in food and drink began to really develop during the Covid 19 pandemic, when members began to connect within a WhatsApp group called TURF.
That group is now disbanded, but many of those former members are now part of the emerging food and drink week and the feeling of solidarity, the awareness of their significance to the town continues to grow and they are keen to make friends and influence people.
Food and Drink Week is all part of that.
Independent restaurants at the launch were represented at the launch by the Howes from Lumiere, Portia Brown of Nagomi, and Lawrie Jeffries, a head chef at The Jockey Club.
That they all took a night out of the kitchen to attend the launch speaks volumes for the buy-in.
And it explained the incredible food that greeted everyone - fresh oysters and chilled wine (courtesy of Gallimore’s Kitchen) followed by what might well be the tastiest and most beguiling bite sized morsels this report have ever tasted - courtesy of Sam’s Montpellier.
The two restaurants are at opposite corners of Montpellier Courtyard, just down the steps off Montpellier Street, and both are also part of the week of celebration that lies ahead.
If you could detach yourself from the sensational tastes, which was difficult, what was also apparent was the camaraderie.
Independent restaurateurs you might have thought were in serious competition were happily rubbing shoulders and talking up each others food.
Helen Howe suggested I try just about everywhere else, only mentioning Lumiere and that it now has a Michelin star when prompted.
Jon Howe will join TV presenter and chef Simon Rimmer, plus Warren O’Connor and Lawrie Jeffries - head chefs at The Jockey Club, and Laura Evans, founder of Sisu Pancakes, as part of a panel at Queens Hotel on 16 September.
Jon then returns for a special event on the 18th for an special food and wine pairing challenge with The Grape Escape Wine Bar.
Elsewhere on in the week you will also find Michelin-starred guest chef, Richard Craven from The Royal Oak Whatcote. There is so much on offer (not all for gastronomes) from masterclasses, chef collaborations and special menus right through to burgers, cake decorating, donuts and a mini beer festival.
Despite the star quality none of those present at the launch seemed to regard themselves as any such thing.
Howe posed for pictures beside an enlarged pull-down poster of himself promoting the Queen’s Hotel event, without an ego in sight.
Sam Price, who received a glorious review from high profile food critic Jay Rayner in The Guardian (he described the resturant as “a place serving dishes that deserve our attention”) was happy to come out of the kitchen to greet everyone, looking thrilled that they had come, but equally pleased to escape the mobile phone lenses for the safety of his kitchen as soon as he could.
It was all splendidly modest and all the more classy for it.
“We really appreciate what they are doing. We’re completely on board,” said Price, referring to the BID, Visit Cheltenham, the chamber of commerce and Marketing Cheltenham.
Helen said: “A few years ago when we first came here (to Cheltenham) I think there was very little on offer - certainly not as many restaurants as there are now.
“It has really grown and the standard of those independents is now really high.
“We just don’t have the resource to really shout about ourselves like the big-name chains do, which is one of the reasons a week like this is so important.”
This is where Cheltenham BID, Visit Cheltenham, Marketing Cheltenham and the chamber of commerce will apply the collective might of thier social media to encourage us all to engage.
Lindsey Holland, who runs Cleeve Hill Hotel, but was there on the night representing the chamber of commerce, said: “I think Cheltenham punches above its weight and I think the hospitality side is something many people enjoy, but perhaps don’t really know as well as they think.
“The thinking is that if you put on a lovely event for everyone they people can come and find out even more. This is why we have all come together.
“And this year we’ve opened it up, so not just BID members etc can take part. What we have here in Cheltenham is fantastic and we really want to show it off.”
Francesca Inman, the new(-ish) leader of Cheltenham BID, the business group that represents those in the town centre, said: “I have been here four months and I continue to discover more and more. What the town has to offer is really special and deserves to be more widely known.”
Demelsa Coleman, marketing and communications manager at Martin's Commercial Properties, which manages The Brewery Quarter, said: “We’re thrilled to be part of Food and Drink Week again, to celebrate the fantastic variety of the vibrant food and drink scene we have here at The Brewery Quarter.
“This week is all about bringing people together to enjoy a diverse range of culinary experiences, from special set menus to unique events – including masterclasses at Brewhouse & Kitchen and The Botanist, wine tasting and a special set menu at The Alchemist, musical bingo at The Botanist, and pub quiz at Brewdog and special price cocktails and nibbles at Flight Club.
“We’re particularly excited to host our first-ever Chilli Fiesta on Saturday, 21 September, which will add a spicy twist to the festivities.”
Mole, said: “What makes what Cheltenham has so exciting is the mix and the independents.
“There is a good chance people might come to Cheltenham for one of the big names, but if we can then help them find one of the other exciting venues they have more reason to come back, and that is a win for everyone.”
You can find out more about the Food and Drink Week here.