Simmons Bars is looking to take its brand nationwide from the early part of next year, after reaching “near saturation” in London, chief executive and founder Nick Campbell told MCA.
The Lonsdale Capital-backed business is due to open its 26th site in the capital next month – the former Hoxton Pony venue, which it acquired from Shoreditch Bar Group.
In addition, it is in legals on four other sites, one of which is outside central London – although Campbell said he was not ready to reveal its location until the deal had been finalised.
The addition of those sites this year will take the bar group to 30 sites – and on track to achieve its goal of 50+ venues over the next two to three years.
Campbell said the property had been favourable in terms of opportunities, and bar a pause over Christmas there has been plenty coming to market.
“But we are at a point in London where we are nearly saturating – not quite, but nearly – so we are starting to look at the national roll-out much seriously,” he said. “I think that’s something we are probably going to attack in the early part of next year.”
Trading was very strong for the group in its last financial year to 31 March 2023, said Campbell, and while demand was a little slower in May – likely due to the number of bank holidays and train strikes, he said the business was still trading well.
“I think we sit in a very good part of the market, especially when the economic climate is a bit more challenging, because we are very affordable. People don’t want to stop going out, they just don’t want to spend as much money.”
In terms of trends, while the demand for cocktails, which peaked post lockdowns, has subsided a little, he said they were still selling strongly, while other categories such as beer and wine have started to make a bit of a comeback. Spirits are still selling really well, with tequila very big at the moment.
Campbell said that due to the fact the business had grown so much since the last drinks contract renewal with its primary supplier, it managed to renew at the end of last year for less than previously.
While this has by no means been the case with every supplier, he said he believed the company has managed drink price inflation very well, which has enabled them to refrain from implementing any menu price rises between 2021 and the start of the new financial year in April, where it implemented a rise of “a few percent” across the board.
“We have grown a lot and we are trading so well that we have managed to swallow a lot of the costs that came our way,” he added.
In addition to trying to spare its customers the impact of drink price inflation, Simmons has also been looking to reward its staff in the tough economic climate, sending a number of its team away on holiday recently to places like Mexico and Ibiza.
“The world is a bit of a tough place at the minute so we are trying to not just financially incentivise people, but also incentivise them through reward. We are looking at doing a lot of staff related stuff – sending people to cool places and trying to give them some very interesting and unique experiences.”
Simmons is also focused on building its people team so that it can “really look after our staff as well as we possibly can”. It’s still not the easiest environment for recruitment and with late nights and long hours not appealing to a lot of people Campbell said the business is also spending a lot of time developing its training programmes and trying to make itself an attractive proposition for potential employees.
