Charlie McVeigh
Why not ban alcohol in pubs as well
I did not vote for Keir Starmer’s Labour, along with 66% of those who went to the polls. But I wasn’t unhappy with what had always seemed...
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Charlie Says
Charlie writes occasionally for the press on the food & beverage industry. Below are extracts from his column for the Propel newsletter.
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Charlie McVeigh
Jun 34 min read
Baggy Trousers & Pubs
I don’t know about you, but I am suffering slight trouser anxiety. For an awfully long time mornings have been straight-forward. Get up,...
Charlie McVeigh
Nov 1, 20233 min read
Small businesses will save the world. And create a new one.
There’s an ingrained tendency in us humans to believe that things are getting worse. It started in the Garden of Eden with the snake, the...
Charlie McVeigh
Jul 29, 20234 min read
School of thought to help tackle the sector’s recruitment crisis
What do the founders of Shake Shack, Dunkin’ Donuts, the Lyft taxi app and the creator of the McDonald’s Quarter Pounder have in common?...
Charlie McVeigh
Mar 9, 20234 min read
Things Are Easy When You're Big In Japan
As a teenager in 1980s west London, I grew up with an awed longing for the twin behemoths of global cool, America and Japan. England was...
Charlie McVeigh
Feb 21, 20233 min read
A Sobering Thought
Those of you who know me might be surprised to learn that I gave up drinking in May. And I don’t really have a plan to start again. Being...
Charlie McVeigh
Sep 29, 20224 min read
There is (was?) a way through
The lesson I take from the reaction to the “mini-Budget”, including from some sector leaders, is we are all socialists now. In the...
Charlie McVeigh
Jul 11, 20224 min read
It Will Get Better
God it’s painful operating right now. It really is. Out of the frying pan of lockdown – and into the fire of scarcity, inflation and...
Charlie McVeigh
Apr 5, 20224 min read
Foodstuff: Delivering the Right Result
In the late 80s I went across to New York City for a short and intense weekend of partying, staying with friends in Greenwich Village. On...
Charlie McVeigh
Jan 30, 20224 min read
After Covid: Trust The People
It’s mid-March 2020 and I am on a 6-man ski-lift in Crans-Montana with a few pals. There’s also an Italian woman with a dry repetitive...
Charlie McVeigh
Aug 12, 20213 min read
I Got Culture-Slammed by Breakfast Club
Good culture is an amazing thing. This week I went to my first Breakfast Club Summer Slam, an all-day sports competition where the...
Charlie McVeigh
Jul 2, 20213 min read
Thinking about the perfect concept for the 2020s
Packing for a recent trip that never happened and cost a fortune, I noticed that a lot of my clothes are from Gap. Even relatively recent...
Charlie McVeigh
May 6, 20213 min read
It's Come to This: I Am Missing the Psychodrama of Conferences & Awards Ceremonies
The young, thrusting entrepreneur in ‘The Sector’ opening his or her third site starts to come to the attention of the trade press. If,...
Charlie McVeigh
Apr 14, 20213 min read
PEERING INTO THE FUTURE OF QSR FROM MANILA IN THE '90S
In 1995 the London-based consulting firm I was working for posted me to Manila to set up an Asia office to service our No.1 client,...
Charlie McVeigh
Dec 7, 20203 min read
Lessons from The Great Fire for Landlords and Operators
Anyone who went to school in this country knows that Great Fire of London started in a bakery on Pudding Lane just off Eastcheap on 2nd...
Charlie McVeigh
Oct 15, 20204 min read
2021: The Property Opportunity of a Generation?
In 1948 Donald Gosling and Ronald Hobson, recently demobbed from the navy, took a wild gamble. They scraped together £200 and bought a...
Charlie McVeigh
Aug 7, 20204 min read
Working from Home is Good for Noone
Picture the scene. An eager Head of People waits outside the Founder’s office. It’s her first big face-to-face meeting since lockdown and...
Charlie McVeigh
Jun 14, 20201 min read
PROJECT PINT LAUNCHES TO ‘FREE THE PINT’
I'm proud to announce the launch of Project Pint, a grass-roots campaign to re-open pubs and restaurants, as soon as possible, as they...
Charlie McVeigh
Mar 20, 20204 min read
Building a New Jerusalem after Corona
The original title of this piece was “What’s Culture without People?”. When I proposed this at the beginning of the week to Mark Wingett...
Charlie McVeigh
Jan 26, 20204 min read
Dance Like Nobody’s Watching
How to Succeed in Hospitality in the early 20s Reading the trades and business pages you’d be forgiven for thinking that the UK...
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