Café and restaurant operator Benugo grew its annual turnover to £100m last year and plans to reach £110m in 2016, M&C has learned.
Co-founder Ben Warner told M&C that the record turnover figure was reached following growth of almost 12%.
“Cracking £100 million is a milestone,” he said.
“We’ve been going at it for 17 years. When you start these companies you never actually believe that you’re going to get there, I’m delighted.”
Benugo’s like-for-likes were up 6% and the rest of the growth was made up by new business, he said.
“Parks have been very profitable for us, museums have been good and high streets are looking good as well.
“Railway station sites are doing very well, airports are doing very well.”
The group opened eight new sites in the past 12 months and now operates almost 60 sites, he said.
“We’ve been very successful with John Lewis, we’re going to be opening four more Benugos inside John Lewis,” he said.
Benugo had also signed off on a new deal with a retailer on Oxford St and would be opening another standalone site on Liverpool St in London, Warner said.
“We are also taking over the running of all of the catering in the Institute of Directors (IoD), and we are opening two more park cafes.”
Benugo will also open two more high street sites this year – one in Manchester and one in Canary Wharf - and will expand in business and industry (B&I) locations too, Warner said.
“We’re looking at a number of new units in banks and law firms and other places.”
Transport hubs and airports were another target, Warner said.
“We’ve got a got a good relationship with Network Rail for stations – we’ve got three already and we want to do more.”
Benugo had also recently renewed it’s V&A, Historic Scotland and Natural History Museum concessions, Warner said.
All future growth would be funded by the company’s cash flow, he said.
“We have a very healthy cash flow, we’re very profitable and we fund it from that.”
However, the rents being demanded for high street sites were off-putting, Warner said.
“I think it’s overpriced. We’re a humble sandwich maker, we make sandwiches and coffee.
“You need to sell a hell of a lot of sandwiches and cakes and coffee to support a £160,000-£200,000 rentals which they’re charging for the good sites.
“I think it’s well overpriced and I think it’s pushing people like us into a very difficult position.
“Only the big brands can really afford to pay these sort of rents and it’s maddening.
“Without selling alcohol, it’s very difficult.”
Looking forward, Warner said they would like to end 2016 with turnover reaching £110 million.
Benugo was also undergoing “a massive HR drive”, he said.
“We’re always setting targets to reduce labour turnover, clearly we want to remain above minimal wage, a lot of our employees already earn above London minimum wage anyway.
“With that going up in April, we want to remain above that, that’s a big goal for us.”
