Restaurants get creative as downturn rages on

Leading restaurateurs are launching a raft of new innovations, including starting off-sales and slashing prices of their top wines. It comes as a new survey shows the rate of insolvencies has shot up since 2008.

Thierry Tomasin, owner of the influential Angelus restaurant in London, has obtained an off-trade licence and is selling mixed six-bottle cases from the premises in price brackets of £50, £100 and £150.

He said the aim was to provide value for money and give his customers more reasons to come back. "It's all about value at the moment and the recession has been fantastic in terms of getting people looking for more interesting wines", he said. "I'm being very transparent on pricing and not making a great deal of money on this - but people know they can get more for their money here."

Tomasin said his sales were actually increasing, but he had noticed customers were becoming more picky in their wine choices.

"Generally, I think we are doing well because people have had enough of the kind of Michelin-dining where you pay £250 and get one spoon of something, and then you have to go to McDonald's because you are still starving", he commented.

Meanwhile Texture restaurant, which opened in the capital in 2007, has significantly lowered the prices of its fine wines by changing to a cash rather than percentage mark-up. The policy means big savings on top names, for example a bottle of Mouton-Rothschild 2001 has gone from £280 to £150 and Sassicaia 2000 has been reduced from £210 to £136.

Co-owner Xavier Rousset explained: "The idea of changing to a cash margin on the top 30 or 40 wines is to get more people who love wine to come through the door. It's all about value. Great fine wines help to open conversations with your customers about wine, and that's good for business."

Falling on-trade sales are putting pressure on restaurants to become more innovative. This week, a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers showed the number of restaurant failures had increased by 70% since the beginning of 2008. Some 186 restaurant companies joined the insolvency register in the first three months of 2009.

PWC said the majority of failing restaurants were smaller, single premises at the lower end of the market while consumers were increasingly turning to branded outlets as a "safer option."

• Sommeliers