In one of the final scenes of the recent successful BBC drama series, The Night Manager, Hugh Laurie, who plays very modern British scoundrel Richard Onslow Roper, is being led away in cuffs ready to face his comeuppance, when he asks Tom Hiddleston’s Jonathan Pine/Andrew Birch character – the man who has infiltrated the inner circle to bring his illegal arms dealing empire down – why he took such a risk, the answer he receives is an enigmatic “you have to commit, you have to make a decision”.
In appointing Andrew Page, the former chief executive of The Restaurant Group (TRG), the Alex Scrimgeour-led and BC Partners-backed Côte has committed. It has laid down a marker on what it believes it can achieve. Here is a group that wants to be a top player in the UK’s eating-out market. The appointment of Page puts a significant line under that ambition.
At TRG, Page left a business, after 12 years of service, firing on all cylinders. As, then chairman, Alan Jackson pointed out on the announcement of his departure, during Page’s 12 years the company had come from having a market capitalisation of £75m to be valued at over £1.2bn: “That would be some achievement even in a benign economy, let alone in the exceptionally challenging decade that we have endured.”
Writing in MCA at the time, Dominic Walsh, The Times’ leisure correspondent called Page the man rivals regard with stunned awe. He said: “His ability to create a world-class business from a string of apparently second-rate brands is truly awesome. Who could have guessed that during his time at the helm, Page would be able to turn brands like Garfunkel’s, Chiquito and Frankie & Benny’s into the foundation stones of one of the stock market’s highest flying go-to stocks of the past decade?”
Unfussy and understated, Page, in tandem with chairman Alan Jackson, took the decision to withdraw from the high street to focus on the much more controllable medium of leisure parks and airports while building a very useful – and cash-generative – food-led pub business in Brunning & Price.
Talking to him last week, just before MCA revealed his new role, you could sense that Page was itching to get back into a sector he has obviously missed after taking time to recharge his batteries, and genuinely excited to be working with a chief executive in Scrimgeour and a business in Côte, which both have bags of potential.
After the departure of former joint managing director Harald Samuelsson at the end of last year and the recent acquisition of the Jackson + Rye and Limeyard brands, the business is entering a new era and, while Scrimgeour has played a major part in its development, including two management buyouts, he, as he freely admits, is a first-time chief executive still on a learning curve.
He says: “To be able to lean on someone who has been at top level for more than 10 years is exciting on many levels.”
And after two private equity deals, the company now has a chairman with a listed/PLC background, which Scrimgeour admits “gives us more viable options for consideration in the future”. But that is for another time.
Page, for his part, will bring experience of evolving established brands and growing formats from scratch, added to a judicious approach to capex.
The company was probably impacted more by the media furore around the tipping issue than it cares to admit, but the new acquisitions and Page’s appointment will provide further impetus as the year progresses. As Page’s old company faces its own challenging period, his new one is getting match fit to take a further step up the rankings.
Heaven sent
It was always a nice marketing line - “McDonald’s in heaven”, but earlier this month, Leon went a step closer to becoming more like the fast food behemoth it aspires to become like in terms of reach, with the appointment of a new managing director, John Upton, a man with 13 years of experience working under the Golden Arches.
Upton, who spent 13 years at McDonald’s, will be in charge of all UK operations – restaurants, people and supply chain, at Leon, while the group’s finance, brand and property functions will continue to report into chief executive John Vincent. Whilst at McDonald’s Upton led a region of franchise businesses with a £350m annual turnover and most recently looked after a group of 120-plus as a senior people leader.
As Vincent said: “Upton will bring more method to our magic.” Upton is faced with a unique challenge – keeping the culture that has made Leon stand out from the crowded food to go market while putting in place the systems to allow it to grow into a truly national, and international, organisation.
He joins the 35-strong group ahead of a significant 12 months, with the brand set to make its overseas debut this year with a launch in Holland, at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. It will use the opening at the airport in conjunction with HMSHost as a gateway for further expansion in north west Europe.
The group, in which Active Private Equity has a stake, is in advanced talks on a further regional site in the UK and hopes to open a site in Manchester in the second half of this year. All the time, a launch in the US remains a work in progress.
Timing wise Upton’s appointment, along with his track record at McDonald’s, should prove a good call by Leon, but if they need a warning of the dangers of bringing a McDonald’s executive into enhance a proven model, they should look no further than at the problems rival POD has been through over the last year.
Back in November 2013, Andrew Taylor, the former chief executive of McDonald’s UK, joined POD, the London-based, healthy fast food concept co-founded and then led by Tim Hall. Taylor was chief executive of McDonald’s UK from 1996 to 2004 having spent most of his career there.
Taylor said at the time: “My belief is that the creative engine at the heart of POD will continue to challenge the market and the growth opportunities for the chain are huge. I look forward to helping Tim and the board realise the potential this exciting business holds.”
Over two years on, the group remains stuck on 23 sites; its co-founders, including Hall, have left the business under a cloud, with Hall leaving following what he has described as “a turbulent year for the group”; whilst there is no sign of Taylor. With a new management team in place and the recent appointment of Anja Madsen, former head of strategy at Sainsbury’s as a non-executive director, it is hoped that POD will move on from the last 18 months of uncertainty.
So Upton and Leon, a match made in heaven? Let’s hope so.
