Colliers | Colliers reacts to COVID-19 closures

James Shorthouse, Head of Alternative Markets, comments on Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s latest announcement this afternoon ordering bars, gyms, cafes, restaurants, spas, cinemas and other hospitality and leisure venues to close.

“It has been clear from recent political comments that this announcement was due and many leisure and hospitality operators have been anticipating their inevitable closure.

“We welcome the financial support measures for the industry and they provide hope that once the restrictions are relaxed, the hospitality industry will still have an adequate pool of professional trained staff and some sort of normality can eventually resume.

“However, it is imperative that support is offered to those in the supply chain for these leisure and hospitality operations and also to the freeholders of the tens of thousands pubs, restaurants and other affected businesses across the UK which are leased which are dependent on rental income. These companies really need assistance at this time to ensure the survival of the industry in the future.”

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James Shorthouse

Head of Alternative Markets

Licensed and Leisure

London - West End

+44 20 7487 1670

+44 7917 260054

James is one of the UK's leading advisers in Pub, Bar, Restaurant and Leisure sectors. He has worked in the sector for over 30 years, a period during which the sector has undergone enormous changes in its operational, ownership and regulatory structures.

Acting on behalf of major operators, investors and banks on portfolios and high value single assets, James' operator clients include Greene King, Ei group, Casual Dining Group, and Novus. On the investor side, for many years he advised Nomura and Terra Firma, worked closely with Cerberus on all of its leisure sector investments and has recently advised Patron Capital, Stellex and NewRiver.

Within Colliers International, James heads up the UK Licensed & Leisure team and also runs the businesses Alternative Markets Division which encompasses Hotels, Automotive, Healthcare, and other specialist Leisure teams.

Throughout his career James has advised major UK and International lenders, both on new lending and on developing and executing exit strategies for distressed lending positions. His team have worked with a number of F&B operators to rationalise their portfolios and have advised landlords on how to preserve value and retain tenants in difficult times.

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Hannah Zitren

Associate Director

Marketing & Communications

Manchester

+44 20 7344 6739

I am responsible for media relations and generating coverage in top tier broadcast and print media. I work across a range of Colliers’ UK & Pan-EMEA business lines advising on their strategic and tactical PR needs.

My role includes:

· Developing and executing PR plans for the various business lines to help promote their key messages across all aspects of the media - print, broadcast and social.

· Media evaluation and reporting objectives, targets and successes across the business.

· Reputation management and crisis management.

· Media training.

· Media engagement: setting up meetings with top tier media and various internal spokespeople to continuously expand and build a presence with property and vertical media network.

· Consistently delivering service excellence, meeting with business heads of a regular basis and trying to influence the research as much as possible to ensure our content has a strong enough news hook.

· Key campaigns that I work on include MIPIM; MAPIC; REVO; Midsummer Retail Report; IHIF; Cities of Influence in addition to a host of all alternative property sector research reports.

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