MORE than 1200 jobs are being created in Scotland as two leading leisure companies yesterday announced a major expansion of their pub and restaurant chains.
The bulk of the new jobs, more than 900, will come from the Whitbread company, which will invest more than #26m in its next financial year in Scotland.
A further 300 jobs will come to Scotland as part of a 5000 jobs expansion by the retail division of Scottish & Newcastle.
However, Mr Paul Waterson, chairman of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, questioned whether there was a danger of over-provision of licences. He said that, for every job being created, there was a danger of a job being lost in local community pubs which were closing down.
He also feared that, in the long term, the large chains may push for profit by special cheap drinks promotions which could increase street violence.
Whitbread will spend more than #20m in Scotland on six new Brewers Fayre family pub restaurants with adjoining Travel Inn hotels, and on four new Hogshead outlets, creating more than 500 jobs. The Brewers Fayre chain concentrates on a family style of restaurant.
Scotland's second TGI Friday restaurant will open in Edinburgh's Castle Street, after the success of the Glasgow outlet in Buchanan Street. Expansion by the group also includes three Pizza Huts, an extension to the Travel Inn City Centre in Edinburgh, and 10 more Costa coffee stores.
The first stylish RSVP cafe bar will also open in Scotland in Aberdeen's Academy shopping centre.
Ms Diane Miller, Whitbread's regional director in Scotland, said the new jobs were a mixture of full and part-time. However, she argued that many people with family commitments welcomed a more flexible style of working.
While the pub and restaurant trade is notorious for low wages, Ms Miller said that Whitbread's was keen to retain good staff. The company offered an excellent pension scheme, discount cards, and free shares once employees had been with the company for three years. Quality of service was also important and staff were given extensive training.
Whitbread chairman Sir Michael Angus revealed yesterday that, while 200 new sites had been opened in the last financial year, 500 other sites were disposed of because of slow growth.
''Our main UK market continues to grow as spending on leisure becomes an integral part of people's lifestyles,'' he said. ''There is increasing evidence that strong brands are prospering at the expense of weaker ones, and Whitbread is particularly well served in this respect.''
The key areas for Scottish & Newcastle's expansion are the opening of more Rat & Parrot bar cafes, the development of more John Barras & Co local community pubs, and further Old Orleans themed restaurants.
Rat & Parrot pubs are often in city centres, created out of old buildings such as banks. The John Barras pubs - The Rock in Glasgow's West End is an example - are in more local communities where the original name of the pub is retained although it is refurbished to a common quality. A number of the new staff will be recruited as part of the Government's New Deal to give long-term youth unemployed a fresh start.
Trading director Chris Ripper said that the development of branded pubs by many companies meant the business was extremely dynamic, and would create thousands more jobs over the next five years.
S&N also runs what it calls a modern apprenticeship scheme which it says can take people to management positions within three years.
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