#Mapic2014 JLL acquires food services specialist

JLL is expanding its European Retail & Leisure Consulting team with the acquisition of specialist food and beverage advisers Coverpoint Foodservice Consultants.

The transaction will enable JLL to provide comprehensive food and beverage consulting advice to a broad mix of clients across the region, according to James Brown, head of European Retail & Leisure Research & Consulting.

'Food and beverage is an offer that is more resilient to the impact of e-commerce and retail polarisation and it adds significant value to user experience in the physical environment. Coverpoint has an impressive and unparalleled track record across the global foodservice industry, from retail real estate investors, to restaurateurs and corporate occupiers. Bringing Coverpoint into JLL will help us meet the growing client demand for this type of consulting service,' he said.

Founded by managing director, Jonathan Doughty, UK-based Coverpoint advises on all aspects of the food and beverage offer including commercial and operational performance analysis, benchmarking, standards monitoring and due diligence. Recent international projects include work for developers, corporate occupiers and investors looking to acquire or asset manage real estate operations with food and beverage components.

'The foodservice sector is going through a phenomenal growth phase, restaurateurs are emerging and expanding and landlords are taking a closer look at how they can improve the food and beverage offer to drive value and experience,' Doughty noted. 'From larger corporate occupiers looking at workplace strategy, to traditional retail real estate investors to smaller star-up restaurant groups, the F&B sector is in huge demand, but getting strategies right is still the key to success. Joining JLL will broaden our capacity, client base and will enable us to bring our collective global foodservice insights to the fore.'

Coverpoint joins JLL with immediate effect. The team reports to James Brown and will relocate from Reading into JLL’s Heathrow office in 2015. At any one time, JLL has around 30 European retail advisers working on food and beverage projects.