Wahaca has entered its most significant year since its launch in 2007, Co-founder Mark Selby has his eye on the company becoming the mid-market equivalent to lifestyle brand Soho House. Mark Wingett reports
Mark Selby, the co-founder of Wahaca, is a self-confessed control freak but, at his own instigation, that is set to change, especially because he hopes the group will become the Soho House of the mid-market casual-dining sector – that means further concepts, developing the company’s already impressive culture and an annual festival.
“I like the idea of not having to be a control freak and taking more of an overview on the growth of Wahaca and DF/Mexico (the group’s more fast-casual format),” says Selby over lunch at the group’s latest London site in Middlesex Street.
“I am spending more time on design and the overall feel of the business, for example, we are doing a big, all-day festival this year for 5,000 people (Day of The Dead in November). I wouldn’t say we were Soho House but on a mid-market level around Mexican food, we are doing something similar.
“The long-term vision is to make this a lifestyle brand, the festival will be part of that and it’s a big investment for us. Like Soho House, there are several different things going on, but all sat under one operational and business team.”
While Selby is increasingly taking a wider view of the group’s long-term development, Jo Fleet, who has been with the company for the past five years and is currently its operations director, is taking on more responsibility befitting a managing director. Selby describes Fleet, the former managing director of ASK, as “very understated, a brilliant operator”. He says: “I am slowly giving her more responsibility across the business and the people in the business love working for her.”
This subtle shift in responsibility come as the company, which includes Capricorn Ventures and Adam and Sam Kaye as backers, finds itself in the first couple of months of what will be one of its most significant financial years, with openings in Manchester, Liverpool and, perhaps most interesting of all, Chichester, set to come on-line to add to its existing 20-strong estate, which includes 18 under its core brand. He says: “We are not aggressively trying to grow but this financial year will be the biggest year in terms of openings, with around seven or eight.”
On Chichester, Selby admits that the deal for the Cargo site in the town’s South Street isn’t yet over the line but, if successful, it will be a significant opportunity for the group. He says: “It’s not so much to test the brand, but it will be interesting to see how it works in that kind of market and whether people will like it. We can use it almost as a learning curve for whether we work in that size of town.
“We are not expecting to blow the doors off there but find out what we need to do for the design and how customers react to it; will it be very Friday/Saturday trade focused? We hope to answer those kind of questions. There are no nerves around it, we don’t need to do it, we are not under the usual private-equity pressure to make that kind of move. An opportunity came up and we thought ‘why not give it a go?’. I think it will be a long play, start well then fall off then settle into consistent growth.”
Trying new things
Selby said he was delighted with how the company’s more fast-casual-influenced DF/Mexico concept, which was launched last year in Shoreditch, had been received so far, with a second set to open later this year on Tottenham Court Road and a regional opening lined up for Watford. He says: “It has given us the opportunity to try new things and allow our staff to also try a different environment. The DF/Mexico in Watford, like Chichester with the core brand, will be a test for us to see how that format plays in the regions.
“I would love to say I know whether it attracts a different dem-ographic to the core brand, but I don’t. It is Shoreditch, so I am not expecting that everyone who goes there will be our standard customer. I think the Tottenham Court Road opening will be more of a test for the format and where we will look to generate more feedback on what people like, don’t like and find confusing.”
The creation of the latter format has also allowed the company to move staff between the two concepts, helping keep them incentivised. Selby says: “That’s some-thing we are looking to do more of now. In the beginning, we kept them as two separate things but now it is a case of why not let someone who is a duty manager at Wahaca, who wants to grow and develop but there isn’t an opportunity with the core brand, to move across and work on DF. We are now looking to integrate that a lot more.”
Selby is rightly proud of the fact the company “somehow nails staff recruitment”. He says: “We had someone leave the other day to work at a rival company and returned within two weeks and said ‘I am sorry I left’. She was a great manager and we were sorry to see her leave but our ops team said she would be back – and they were right. We didn’t have to chase, which I hope highlights the great culture we have developed.”
Refreshing stance
Whether building a strong people culture or developing new concepts, Selby is de-termined that the company doesn’t stand still, with the latest example being the introduction of a new taco bar at its
Wardour Street site in Soho. Selby says: “Every five years, we take the opportunity to refresh the look and feel of our sites, and the size of Wardour Street allowed us to introduce the taco bar.
“Every year I go to Mexico and these awesome taco stands are always a highlight. Basically, it is a guy and a grill doing one type of taco, with really good fresh salsa. So we thought we would give it a go. We have this amazing sustainable grass-fed British rib eye with chillies grown especially for us, plus excellent cheese. We are doing a grab-and-go with that and it adds great theatre to the restaurant.”
Regional trade impressive
In terms of returns on a percentage point of view, the group’s Burrito Mama unit in One New Change is its most successful business, but Selby reiterates he doesn’t want to get in to that “competitive burrito market”.
“As opportunities come up, we might open some but, for me, things like the new taco stand, if we were going to do something, would be an interesting thing to grow. It is one of those dream formats, like Dirty Burger, which sits on a corner, a little stand with one chef producing and serving amazing food,” he admits. “We’re not going to do that. Saying that, if the right space came up, we know that Burrito Mama works well.”
With Bristol recently opened and Southampton also lined up for next year, Selby is happy that trading at the group’s first regional site in Cardiff, which opened last November is continuing to do well. He says: “London has been really strong. Around February and March time, we were slightly worried about the market, but the past three months have been fantastic. New openings have been good (Kentish Town and at Middlesex Street).”
Selby says the company, which saw turn-over climb from £28m to £35m in the year to the end of July 2015, is definitely a cautious one in terms of “how we go about stuff”. He says: “I think, long term, that is probably the right approach, you don’t jump from the size we are now to a £400m business tomorrow. We will take it a step at a time and try to learn a lot along the way. We never make things easy for ourselves doing the same thing, we always look to try something different.”
