HELLO and welcome to the Business Briefing on Wednesday, August 11, as the influence of the pandemic on commerce was highlighted as takeaway logistics company Deliveroo doubled the number of orders it received through its app in the first six months of the year.
The business said it took 148.8 million orders in the half, up from 74.5 million in the same period last year, and reported a doubling of gross transaction value, to nearly £3.4 billion.
Slightly better news for aviation with Heathrow recording its highest monthly passenger total of the coronavirus pandemic, but the 1.5 million, or 74%, increase compared with the same month last year is still more than 80% below the figure for July 2019.
Also today, there is a new top team at a family-owned Scottish restaurant group, a date has been set for the confirmation of the preferred bidder for the former Royal High School in Edinburgh, and a Glasgow fintech hails a jobs hike despite pandemic pressures.
New top team at family-owned Scottish restaurant group
AN independently owned Scottish restaurant group has hailed the appointment of a new executive chef to oversee the food offering of its four Edinburgh venues, as well a new head chef, head pasta chef, and a general manager.
The Rocca Group – which owns The West Room, The Broughton, Rico’s on North Castle Street and Rico’s Pasta Bar within the Bonnie & Wild Scottish Marketplace – has promoted chef Paul Barber to lead its portfolio of restaurants in the capital city.
Mr Barber, originally from Manchester, has 20 years of experience in the industry, with stints at multiple award-winning restaurants and iconic Edinburgh hotels The Balmoral and The Scotsman on his CV.
He made the move to Scotland in 2004 to work for the Pieraccini family, owners of The Rocca Group, which also includes the award-winning Seafood Ristorante in St Andrews.
Mr Barber was head chef at both The West Room and The Broughton.
Joining Mr Barber as brand-new members of the team are chef Francesco Ascrizzi; a previous winner of pasta chef of the year who will take the position as head pasta chef at Rico’s and Rico’s Pasta Bar, Sébastien Weber; Rico’s general manager, who joins from Edinburgh’s own Waldorf Astoria – The Caledonian where he held the position of Food and Beverage Outlets Manager, and Iain Thomson completes the line up as the new head chef at Rico’s.
Mr Barber said: “It’s a brilliant time to be part of The Rocca Group with two new venues recently launched. Rico’s and Rico’s Pasta Bar both bring something different to the city centre and we’re so pleased with the feedback we have received so far.
“The benefits of working for a family owned, independent group is that we are given the freedom to use the ingredients and suppliers that we like – we already have great relationships with the likes of David Lowrie Fish Merchants for all of our seafood.
“It’s the consistency of these suppliers combined with the talent and ambition of our growing team which means we can deliver a quality experience, whether you visit Rico’s for dinner and drinks, or The Broughton for a Sunday roast, or The West Room for wine and cicchetti.”
Stefano Pieraccini, director of The Rocca Group, said: “My family has trusted Paul with our restaurants since 2004. He knows the values of our business and what it means to create an excellent experience for diners.
“Most recently, Paul has taken the offering of The Broughton to the next level and helped us to land our listing in the Michelin Guide for 2021 – that is no easy task especially when we spent much of the last year closed.
“He will be playing a huge role in the next exciting chapter of our story as a restaurant group. Rico’s and Rico’s Pasta Bar are very personal projects for me and I have no doubt Paul will rise to the occasion, take it in his stride and continue to do a fantastic job.
“We’re thrilled to be welcoming some new faces to the Rocca Group, too, with the appointment of Francesco, Sébastien and Iain. All come with an incredible background in some of Edinburgh’s finest hospitality institutions. I am confident they will thrive in our venues and help to continue our tradition of great food paired with great service.”
The Rocca Group’s latest ventures include Rico’s; a new destination Italian restaurant which launched in July on North Castle Street, and Rico’s Pasta Bar; a pop-up version of the original restaurant which will be situated in Bonnie & Wild’s Scottish Marketplace within the new St James Quarter.
Edinburgh Royal High School preferred bidder to be unveiled
The preferred bidder for the old Royal High School building in Edinburgh is set to be unveiled following a new bidding process.
Glasgow fintech creates jobs amid pandemic challenges
Trading technology firm Beeks Financial Cloud has said it is on course to record growth in revenues and profits in spite of the challenges posed by the pandemic.
If you have been forwarded this article and would like to sign up, or view our new range of newsletters, click below:
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here