Charlie Says

Charlie has written extensively for the press on the food & beverage industry and is also the subject of frequent articles on the sector and his achievements in business. Below are extracts from his regular column for the Propel newsletter.

Charlie McVeigh

3 days ago
3 min

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
3 min

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, 2020
3 min

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, 2020
4 min

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, 2020
4 min

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, 2020
1 min

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, 2020
4 min

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, 2020
4 min

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...

Charlie McVeigh

Nov 29, 2019
4 min

The Turkish Grill Which, In A Small Way, Brings a Divided Community Together

When I bought my house just off Ladbroke Grove in 1991 – at a price agreed the week after George Bush Sr invaded Kuwait – the area still...

Charlie McVeigh

Nov 5, 2019
4 min

A Pint is a Human Right. Even for the Sober Guy

This week I hopped on the train to Oxford to take my daughter out to lunch. She just started at the university there and we got to...

Charlie McVeigh

Sep 29, 2019
3 min

Lunch is Dead! Long live Lunch!

There’s something about a “proper lunch” for a middle-aged hospitality professional that’s not dissimilar to his or her younger self...

Charlie McVeigh

Sep 23, 2019
4 min

Dream Colossus

Draft House founder Charlie McVeigh asks what’s stopping the UK from producing global hospitality brands On a morning in August I decided...

Charlie McVeigh

Sep 23, 2019
4 min

Brits can save France’s moribund food scene

Charlie McVeigh laments the decline in French hospitality and wonders if plucky Britons might save the day? It has become a smug trope of...

Charlie McVeigh

Sep 23, 2019
4 min

Who needs France? Get down to the Cornish Riviera...

Bunker Projects founder Charlie McVeigh explains why he believes the Cornish town of St Ives is setting an example for other seaside...