Premium hospitality group Upmarket Leisure has acquired Radio Rooftop, the iconic bar within five-star luxury lifestyle hotel, ME London.

The deal further strengthens the business’s strategic partnership with Meliá Hotels International, Spain’s largest hotel group, with Upmarket Leisure to significantly enhance the luxury lifestyle hotel’s food and beverage offer, bringing further innovation and growth to the design-led venue.

With over 20 years’ senior management expertise in owning, operating, and investing in premium restaurants and bars, the group takes over all food and beverage operations including Radio Rooftop, Marconi Bar, ME events and in-room dining with immediate effect, delivering a five-star experience in-keeping with ME London’s world-class operating standards.

A new menu will be unveiled in autumn, with Asian small plates and an impressive drinks list catering for a stylish and discerning crowd.  A refurbishment of Radio, one of London’s most celebrated rooftop bars, will follow in the New Year.

The development cements Upmarket Leisure’s relationship with Meliá’s ME brand, with whom the business also owns and operates premium Italian restaurant Luciano by Gino D’Acampo.

Speaking on the announcement, Mat Cunningham, Managing Director of Upmarket Leisure, said: “We’re delighted to further extend our valued partnership with Meliá Hotels International with the acquisition of Radio at ME London, together with providing our specialist food and beverage services.  We look forward to introducing a luxury and proudly different offer.”

Garry Fortune, UK Director of Operations at Meliá Hotels International, added: “Upmarket Leisure is a trusted and much respected partner with a proven track record for delivering on performance.  We are thrilled to continue our work together as we mark a decade of design, expression, and restless creativity at ME London hotel.”

Launched in 2013, ME London is an architectural masterpiece bursting with art, music, design, and fine cuisine. Its enviable location, at the heart of London’s most bohemian and cosmopolitan district, provides guests with effortless access to the English capital’s theatres, pubs, boutiques, cafes, restaurants, and live music.

We were pleased to announce the strategic partnership, with widespread industry coverage enjoyed.

We’re pleased to announce we’ve been appointed by Groobarbs Wild Farm to manage the business’s communications.

The twofold contract sees The Strong Agency responsible for promoting the business’s newly launched field-to-fork restaurant, Groobarbs Field Kitchen, located on the farm’s estate in High Legh, Cheshire.

Opened in late 2022, the Kitchen, founded by husband-and-wife team, David and Becky Fryer, and led by Head Chef, Mark Price, sees an emphasis on ‘true seasonal dining’ with dishes centred around produce freshly harvested from the Kitchen’s 6.5-acre market garden just metres away.  It’s absolutely incredible and we (and the Manchester Evening News) highly recommend you try it.

The agency will also work with Groobarbs to promote the farm’s vegetable box delivery business, Groobox, as it enters the next phase of expansion.  Established in 2014, the business delivers locally grown produce to customers over a 35-mile radius reaching as far as Buxton, Bury, Liverpool, and Stoke on Trent.

Work is already well underway with an integrated business and consumer communications campaign designed to drive awareness, web traffic, reservations, and sales.

Speaking on the business’s decision to appoint Strong, owner of Groobarbs Wild Farm, David Fryer, said: “The Strong Agency’s passion for what we’re doing coupled with its extensive knowledge of the hospitality, food and beverage, and retail sectors impressed us from the off.  They’ve already contributed considerable value to the business; we’re looking forward to the months ahead.”

It’s a dream brief for the agency combining our love of the outdoors with our passion for food, leisure, and hospitality.  We couldn’t be more pleased to work together.

The doors to Legoland Discovery Centre Manchester may be temporarily closed as we navigate the second national lockdown but that doesn’t mean the fun has to stop.  To the contrary, it means there’s an even greater requirement for it.

With the majority of Manchester’s festive celebrations cancelled due to the pandemic, we’ve been pleased to sprinkle a little seasonal magic on the city working with the leading family attraction to harness the media agenda and recreate many of Manchester’s much-loved Christmas events in miniature LEGO form.

The incredible build, created by Master Model Builder James Windle and including the iconic Christmas markets, Santa Dash, and ice-rink amongst other features, was unveiled to the public on Thursday night in an alternative, virtual Christmas light switch on.  Over 3,700 fans joined in online counting down with LEGO Santa to the official launch.

The response was fantastic, not just from the attraction’s A-list media who provided widespread feature coverage on the event and highlighted it as their ‘pick of the week,’ but from young families across the region who flooded Legoland Discovery Centre Manchester with thanks for “creating a wonderful bit of magic.”

It certainly provided us with a warm festive feeling.

You can read about it over at I Love Manchester or join over 85K people in viewing Manchester Miniland on The Manc, just two of the campaign’s highlight features.

Legoland Discovery Centre Manchester is scheduled to reopen in December, subject to government restrictions.

The pressures of lockdown have seen many a relationship tested and its been no different for Sea Life Manchester’s giant green sea turtles, Cammy & Ernie.

Introduced in 2017 the leading family attraction’s star creatures immediately hit it off leading to high hopes that they would one day breed.  Recent weeks have, however, seen a noticeable change in their behaviour, with the duo developing a clear lockdown rift.

Not ones to miss a story opportunity we’ve been pleased to wade in, along with Sea Life’s expert creature welfare team, to help counsel the bickering duo and share how the deep-sea love doctors are working to reignite the turtles’ passion for one another.

A playful story we loved developing, leading to feature coverage on page three of The Times, The Daily Telegraph, BBC Radio 4, The Sun, The Scottish Sun, The Daily Star, The Manc, About Manchester and Inside Express amongst others.