Philpotts, the artisan sandwich chain owned by Patisserie Holdings, plans to convert about three quarters of its stores to its new evolved concept Café Philpotts and is also looking to enter the London market, managing director Lisa Brook has told M&C Report.
The first Café Philpotts opened at the existing Philpotts unit at Birmingham’s Colmore Circus on 16 June.
The new format aims to appeal to a wider customer base, with more comfortable seating, complimentary wi-fi and longer trading hours; trading until 5pm, compared to 3pm for the standard Philpotts. It also opens on Saturdays. Food is served on crockery rather than paper plates and afternoon business buffets are available for the corporate market.
Brook said: “What we know from our experience is you need to give somebody who is coming in to buy a premium product the option to be able to sit in a comfortable relaxing surrounding and also encourage longer dwell time in the stores; the takeaway market is a very, very small window.
“The idea is to encourage all spectrum, all genre of customers to come in.”
On plans for the 24-strong estate, Brook said: “About three quarters of those will be converted to the Café Philpotts style, because they are large stores - they have the capacity to be able to either completely re-fit to the Café Philpotts style, or for some we will literally be taking out the high table bar seating and putting in nice comfortable chairs and tables.”
Growth targets for Philpotts, which was acquired by Patisserie Holdings in March prior to its flotation on AIM in May, have not been disclosed, but Brook said: “We’re just in the stages now of identifying where we want to roll out the stores.
“There’s a fantastic opportunity with Philpotts because it’s such an established brand. We’re always being offered sites but we have a very strict programme of where we would like to open these stores. Even in the existing areas we’re in at the moment, from Bristol up to Scotland, there is plenty of scope being before we take Philpotts south into the London area.”
Regarding plans for the capital, Brook said: “It’s watch this space. We know that the clients we are dealing with are expecting Philpotts to be in London; they’re in Manchester, Leeds, all of the main large cities of the UK.
“London is crying out for somebody to go in there and find the right properties for us to be going into, and we have fantastic property partners that are already looking.”
Following its acquisition by Patisserie Holdings, Patisserie Valerie cakes have been introduced to Philpotts sites.
