Apostrophe chief executive Amir Chen has told M&C Report that the London-based patisserie café concept has the potential to work well in a variety of different locations outside the capital.
It comes as Chen confirms Apostrophe’s latest openings, explains how the format has been evolved for different sites, and reveals the company’s expansion plan for the remainder of the year.
Chen said the redeveloped site at the 02 in Hampstead, which opened last week, has a more “loungey” feel and is more of a destination outlet.
The menu has been “tweaked” to offer more healthy options, such as healthy breakfasts and more salad options than usual. It’s targeted more at women and families.
Apostrophe’s first site in Soho is expected to open at Brewers Street at the end of next week. Chen said it would be a “very different environment then we’ve operated in before”.
“We’ve got quite a large lounge space at the back that we will use to exhibit art and some other interesting things. We are doing an interesting project in that space with a well-known name, trying to look at cafes in an interesting way.”
Apostrophe is to open a “more mainstream” site at Austin Friars in the City in July, taking it to 24 units. Chen said the company is close to securing another outlet in the “core City”, with plans to open in October.
Along with its espresso & food bar in Canary Wharf, which opened in the spring, this takes Apostrophe to five openings in 2013. Chen said four or five openings per year are “probably about as much as we can handle at the moment”.
The company is looking to reach 50 sites in London before reassessing its strategy.
Chen said: “We would like to get outside of London. I think there’s capacity for the business to do well whether it’s in market towns – more destination [style], with greater dwell times – or whether it’s tourist towns like Oxford or Cambridge, or big industrial towns: Leeds, Sheffield.”
Currently three sites operate at airports: two in Heathrow and one at Gatwick. Chen said it could work in other transport hubs that have significant dwell time, such as St Pancras station.
“We’ve always thought that Apostrophe is more than just F&B on the go. It’s about the experience the service. It could work well in lots of different places without making many changes.”
The company is currently undergoing a £1m refurbishment programme. Chen said four full investments have been made to date, with two more to follow.
Last year catering firm CH&Co bought a 50% stake in Apostrophe and Chen said funds are available to expand. He said private equity investment was not on the cards but bank funding could be at some stage.
Meanwhile, Chen said recent trading has been going “very well”, although like-for-like comparatives are difficult because of the timings of Easter and May bank holidays and the Jubilee last year.
