Rising costs are becoming a serious issue with each passing day and the latest affect of same has been cited over the U. K. pub and restaurant group Mitchells & Butlers Plc, which on Friday announced about its plans of raising the quality of its menu along with moderately increasing the prices of food in its branches as well, which according to the group will definitely serve to mitigate the effects of rising costs to a maximum.

Mitchells & Butlers Plc’s restaurant chain includes Harvester, All Bar One, Toby Carvery and Nicholson's, which all will cite a raise in the quality of their respective menus according to the company’s plan, in context to which even the Interim Chief executive, Jeremy Blood has shown optimistic views.

The decision has been taken by the company post its recently disappointing the market with a lower operating margin for the first half. Regarding the situation, the company said, "challenges lie ahead in respect of input cost inflation from food and energy, in addition to uncertainty around U. K. discretionary consumer spending", which will "create pressures on the business extending into full year 2012".

Blood marked further in his statement that "We'll continue moderate inflationary price increases but we'll develop our menu”. Moreover, he also revealed about the company’s plan of spending additional GBP10 million in energy costs in the next financial year.