Leaders from Loungers, Piper, OakNorth Bank and UK Hospitality will discuss the future of branded bars at MCA’s Pub Conference 2024.
The conference takes place on 26 June at The Ham Yard Hotel, London and will feature a full day of presentations and panels, including Q&As with leaders in the pub and bar sector.
As the high street weathers turbulence in the economic and consumer climate, this panel explores how branded bars are adapting to meet these challenges, and consider the outlook for investment across Britain’s towns and city centres.
Representing Loungers, is group MD, Justin Carter, who has been with the all-day restaurant, bar and cafe brand for nearly 10 years, helping develop the grow the Lounge and Cosy Club brands, first as COO, then as Lounge MD.
Before Loungers Justin spent five years as operations director at Fuller’s. He also founded and led restaurant business Wallace & Co with Greg Wallace, and founded and led The Elbow Room, a chain of pool bars.
Deepesh Thakrar, senior director debt finance at OakNorth Bank will also join the discussion. He joined OakNorth Bank a few months prior to its initial launch in 2015, and the disrupter bank has since lent over £11bn to support fast-growth businesses.
The bank has been a key lender to the hospitality sector, partnering with Inception Group, Heartwood Collection, Red Oak Taverns and The Inn Collection Group. Before joining OakNorth Bank, Deepesh spent almost 13 years at Santander where I was a relationship director originating and structuring deals for businesses with up to £50m turnover.
Joining him, is Yasha Estraikh, associate partner at Piper Private Equity. Estraikh joined Piper in 2012 and leads on Piper’s commercial due diligence in assessing the growth potential of investments by better understanding why customers love a brand and why the brand is better and different versus the competition.
Post-investment, he works closely with investee entrepreneurs and management teams to put the customer at the heart of what they do, in order to help them better understand how consumers think and behave before growing the brand into new channels or products, redesigning their packaging, and opening new stores and restaurants.
Finally, the industry voice representing the hospitality secotr, Kate Nicholls OBE has been CEO of UKHospitality since its inception in 2018, having previously worked as CEO and strategic affairs director of the forerun of UKH, the ALMR.
Nicholls is also chair of the Tourism Alliance and co-chair of the London Tourism Recovery Board, sits on the Government’s Tourism, Hospitality and Food & Drink Sector Councils and has previously chaired the London Night-time Commission. She initially worked as a researcher in the House of Commons and European Parliament on food, employment and environmental policy before joining Whitbread to work in Strategic Affairs.
For more information on the event and the current agenda, and to book your tickets, please click here.
