Diners seeking to impress friends by photographing themselves eating at trendy “pop-ups” have contributed to the collapse of more restaurant businesses in the first nine months of this year than the whole of 2017. Middle-market chains are bearing the brunt of the spate of closures which has seen 1,123 restaurant companies became insolvent so far this year. While dining veterans such as Sir Terence Conran have had financial trouble there seems to be insatiable demands for short-lived restaurants with specialist themes such as cassoulets, duck dishes and Japanese pancakes. An analysis of figures from the Insolvency Service shows the number of closures is up by a third across England, Wales and Scotland. Throughout the whole of last year, 1,075 failed, 833 of which went under…

Source: The Times November 05, 2018 00:03 UTC