Busaba is, without a doubt, in better shape for the future than pre-pandemic and is looking to grow, despite “a loop of fresh challenges”, managing director Terry Harrison has told MCA.
The 11-strong Thai restaurant group was acquired by Tnui Capital in June 2020 and underwent a CVA in October of that year, enabling it to address historical challenges around several under-performing sites and readjust its rent levels.
“The pandemic also afforded us to opportunity to review and reset many of or well-trodden ways of working.
“We streamlined and improved our operations and rebuilt our support function – all of which impacted positively on our on-going profitability,” he said.
But post-Brexit issues and the war in Ukraine, together with continued reverberations from the pandemic, has meant its strategies “are becoming somewhat reactive”, with recruitment and retention woes, spiralling utility costs and rising food costs (not to mention train and tube strikes), “swamping our long-term to day-to-day plans”, Harrison explained.
He said the business was navigating the current cost pressures “with great difficulty” and that the hospitality industry was “stuck between a rock and a hard place” in terms of rising costs that cannot be matched in terms of higher menu pricing as it “would affect demand to the point of no return”.
“We have raised prices, but it has hardly touched the sides,” he added.
However, the group still interested in picking up new sites, where it is sensible in terms of landlord demands and stretching its teams and cash reserves.
“We looked at opening three new restaurants a year for the next two or three years as we came out of the pandemic, but we might push that out another year or so.”
The business opened a new site on George Street in Oxford earlier this year, alongside a new concept at the same location – a cocktail bar called Ajia, in the basement.
Harrison said trade at the new restaurant was growing nicely, and while has given it the confidence to look at other regional locations, growth outside London was all about patience and building its reputation slowly.
“Our plan is not built around an explosion of openings. We will take our time and choose our path carefully,” Harrison said.
“We are not going to destroy 22 years of business building by letting our egos take over our senses.”
There are still untapped areas of London that the brand would love to introduce itself to, such as the City, the Southbank and Victoria,” he said.
Harrison said the business would look to open further combined Busaba/Ajia sites, should suitable property opportunities arise in the right locations.
“We want to build the Ajia brand slowly – it is an infant in terms of what it will eventually become,” he added.
