Gail’s Artisan Bakery, the Luke Johnson-backed group, has appointed Barry Cook, formerly of Aubaine Restaurants, as its new deputy managing director, M&C Report has learnt.
Cook joins the 19-strong group after over four and a half years as head of operations at Aubaine. Previous to that he spent nine years at Ikea.
The company, which is led by joint founders Tom Molnar and Ran Avidan, recently opened its latest site in Abbeville Road, Clapham.
Earlier this year, the company revealed plans to expand out of the capital, but said it had turned down opportunities to go into travel locations.
Molnar said the company had ambitions to open sites within 50 miles of London, in places such as Oxford, Cambridge, St Albans or Guildford.
Molnar said: “We are talking about the greater metro area - that’s all the scope I have really thought about seriously. If I were to go any further, I would have to think about moving everything over.”
When asked about travel locations, Molnar said he would rather stick to what he refers to as “neighbourhood” locations.
The company recently set up a delivery service to provide catering for business meetings in London.
