AMID the desolation on the high street, there are some green shoots.

The malaise of the branded casual dining market, as exemplified by difficulties at chains such as Jamie’s Italian, Prezzo and Byron Burger, appears to have brought opportunity for independent operators.

That is because prominent high street sites vacated by previously fast-growing brands are suddenly within the grasp of smaller players. Faced with commercial spaces lying vacant, there is evidence that some landlords are responding by offering sweeter deals to prospective tenants in a bid to secure income from their assets.

The development was pointed out to me by Simone Varese, director of the growing Blue Lagoon fish and chip chain, when explaining the company’s decision to expand its flagship outlet next to Central Station in Glasgow. The general decline of the high street, Mr Varese said, has resulted in his firm being approached by landlords with a greater number of opportunities to take on outlets.

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“With the high streets being the way they are just now, the opportunities are coming to us more regularly than they used to,” Mr Varese said. “But what I would say is that, in comparison to a few years ago, we put in five or 10 times the due diligence we maybe used to when the high streets were [thriving]. Luckily, there is a wee bit more scope for negotiating with landlords, which helps.”

A similar point was made to me last week by veteran leisure entrepreneur Brad Stevens when he was discussing his plans for Mamasan, the Thai bar and restaurant he is due to open in Glasgow city centre later this month.

Mr Stevens, who founded and ran Asian street food and cocktail chain Bar Soba for 20 years, expressed his delight in securing a prominent site on Ingram Street, close to a number of fashion boutiques and plush office buildings, for the venture. “It was too good an opportunity to miss,” he said.

The chance came about following the collapse into administration of Argentine-themed restaurant group Gaucho, which traded from the site as Cau, its casual dining brand. A deal was later struck which saved the group’s 16 restaurants trading under the Gaucho brand, but the Cau chain was closed.

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Much like Jamie’s Italian, Byron and Prezzo, Gaucho’s difficulties came as the hospitality industry grappled with, and continues to face, increasing overheads, including rising business rates and food costs, driven in part by the collapse in the pound since the Brexit vote of June 2016. And that is before the difficulties associated with the post-Brexit crackdown on immigration – a major worry for the hospitality sector – come into play.

Such pressures go some way to explaining why figures from the Insolvency Service show that the number of restaurant insolvencies (including mobile food service activities) in Scotland increased from 136 in 2018 to 142 last year.

Rescue deals meant the likes of Byron, Prezzo and Gaucho managed to emerge out of administration. But they did so after securing agreements with creditors which resulted in significant job losses and swathes of outlets closing.

Now, some of those sites are being picked up by independent players.

Indeed, Mr Stevens said the emergence of what he calls “magpie” outlets is positive for nimble independent companies such as his own.

The trend allowed him to take his Pizza Punks chain into Newcastle in a site vacated by Café Rouge (owned by Casual Dining Group), with the entrepreneur noting that deals are more enticing because the previous occupants had invested heavily in fixtures and fittings. In some cases, these leases already have consents such as licensing and planning in place.

“We call them magpie sites,” Mr Stevens said. “You’re chopping maybe £150,000 off your overheads because they have that standing start.”

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Tim Cooper, chairman of insolvency trade body R3 in Scotland, said it is “hard to deny that the dining sector as a whole has had a turbulent time”. But he also acknowledged it has thrown up opportunities for independents “who, unencumbered by central decision-making and franchising rule, may be able to act more nimbly, and tailor their offering to local tastes and trends.”

Whether or not this is uniformly beneficial for consumers is a perhaps a different matter, however.

In these fragile economic times, it is arguably more affordable for families to eat in casual dining chains, particularly if they are savvy enough to look out for voucher codes. Many of the big chains have outlets in out of town shopping malls, where parking is free and there are cinemas, too.

These conveniences are certainly not to be dismissed for families short on time and looking for quick and easy solutions.

By contrast, eating in independent restaurants can be costly.

The emergence of the exciting eating and drinking scene in the Finnieston area of Glasgow has been one of the biggest success stories of UK hospitality in recent years, with the quality on offer bringing international renown to a once down-at-heel part of the city. Demand for tables in some restaurants is now so high that bookings for some Finnieston outlets are required weeks in advance.

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However, eating out in such sought-after outlets comes at a price which can be beyond the reach of mid-market consumers.

Of course, being independent is no guarantee of success, even when such venues are offering the tastiest dishes and the finest cocktails.

Independents face the same pressures as the national brands in terms of overheads.

Businesses in areas such as Finnieston pay top dollar for the produce they buy in and for the staff who prepare the food and drinks.

It can also be argued that the economies of scale the big chains enjoy give them a distinct advantage.

One key difference, however, is that an independent usually does not have a private equity backer demanding quick returns on their investment calling the shots.

Independents often have the freedom to take a longer term view. Sure, they are not free from short-term pressures, but in many cases the decisions they make are with the long-term future in mind.

Many of the big chains have ultimately run into difficulty because of pressure from investors to expand quickly. As the experience of recent years has shown, this can come at a cost.

The predilection of some of the big names to grow portfolios rapidly has led them to take sites in expensive postcodes, where the level of rent has put severe pressure on margins.

This has certainly been a factor in some of the insolvency events of recent times.

What hospitality venues of all hues now have in common, of course, is the coronavirus. With the number of cases expected to escalate in the coming weeks, there are undoubtedly difficult times on the horizon for everyone involved in the industry – big or small.