Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) opened its second suburban Browns last week and is looking to build a pipeline of future locations, chief executive Phil Urban told MCA.
The business converted an existing Vintage Inns into a Browns in Beaconsfield, which opened in August year, with a location in Ruislip following earlier this month. Both have been performing really well, but the real test will be early next year after the Christmas rush.
“Browns is a great brand, but we’ve been guilty of doing very little with it over a number of years, and have watched The Ivy Café and Cote Brasserie come up the rails, so it’s been something that’s been on my radar for a long while,” Urban said.
“The problem for Browns historically has been that it is a city centre business, in prime sites, which are few and far between.”
While the business has had success with its premium food pub Miller & Carter over the five years and more, Urban says it is reaching its limit in terms of opportunities for expansion, and therefore M&B was keen to find the next string to its bow.
“Browns is the obvious choice because it’s another premium restaurant offer which I think the consumer is looking for and if we can make it work in suburbia, then it could become the next growth story.”
The menu took a while to get to the right place and it had one failed iteration of design that didn’t quite hit the mark, but the first revamped Browns has done around the double the sales it was doing as a Vintage Inn, he said.
Urban believes both new Browns will be very successful, “and yes we’ll do want to do more”. He said that while M&B has a decent pipeline of site opportunities, it will take a while to gear -up a big project plan, “but we’ll get on with the next batch”.
The group has also been taking one of its other brands into new locations, with the opening of its first dark kitchen for Toby Carvery around three months ago.
Operating out of an O’Neill’s in Clapham, Urban said the move was less about trying to extend delivery for Toby Carvery, a channel it already performs well in, but about how it can take a successful and well-loved brand to places where there isn’t a suitable site available.
