Incipio Group’s Pergola brand will have a prominent role in plans for future expansion, even as the group closes its Pergola Paddington venue this month.
Sales and marketing director Anthony Knight tells MCA that under the terms of the group’s initial lease with British Land, the venue was due to stay open only two years but extended it multiple times.
“We’re conscious there are a lot of high profile closures at the moment,” Knight says. “In a way, Covid helped us because British Land wasn’t able to develop the area into an office development.
“We’re sad to be closing [the Paddington venue] but we’ve got plans to open more Pergolas in London.”
Pergola Paddington opened in 2017 and, in its later years, enjoyed the post-pandemic shift towards demand for outdoor spaces.
“As a hybrid food hall meets bar meets party venue meets event space, it was the spot to be in West London,” Knight adds. “There was always demand for outdoor spaces in other European cities, but that didn’t exist in London outside Soho up until 2021.
“And we were part of leading that charge.”
Pergola on the Wharf, the group’s second site under the Pergola brand, opened in Canary Wharf in 2021. Since its launch, its like-for-like growth has been “significant each month,” according to Knight.
“There’s been a big re-emergence of people working from the office. And outside of the working week, we have lots of brunch parties, live music, and Friday night events with big DJs.
“Pergola on the Wharf’s doing really well and given us the confidence there’s still a lot of interest in this concept.
“We’d love to see Pergola in the Northwest, East, and South [of London]…any more than four would be too much. We don’t want it oversaturated.”
While it can be challenging to find big spaces in London, Incipio works to identify such locations – but will continue to tailor the concept to each site.
“We don’t want to force a concept into a space that doesn’t quite make sense…we’ve made a couple of mistakes in the past.
“When we look at a space, if a brand we have doesn’t quite fit, we enjoy the process of creating a new one.
There is also significant international interest in the Pergola brand, Knight reveals, but the short-term focus will remain on London.
Later this year, Incipio is to announce its involvement in a “project that will be London’s newest, most exciting development in my opinion,” he adds.
“We’re working closely with the landlord there to create a unique concept, while developing one or two of our current brands.”
This year, the group is also working with Cirque du Soleil as it launches its first permanent show in London, where Incipio will be responsible for managing the F&B offer.
“We look at Pergola and get excited about seeing it in other cities, but London still has new opportunities,” Knight says.
Last year was a “tale of two halves” in terms of trading, with a strong summer and Christmas but interrupted trading over some parts of the year due to rail strikes.
“This will be quite a telling year. We’re focusing internally on making sure everything is in the best possible place…we’re cautious but optimistic.”
