Imbiba Partnership, the investment company behind Drake & Morgan, is set to invest in a fourth concept called Hamilton & Bond, which will be a bar restaurant format designed to be edgier and less uniform that its other ventures.
The group is currently looking to raise £10m through a new round of fundraising as it looks to develop its other new concepts – Darwin & Wallace (D&W), Camm & Hooper (C&H) and Hawthorn & Hill.
The company is searching for “unlikely spaces” in locations such as Shoreditch for Hamilton & Bond, which will be designed “to be the anti-brand in that all outlets will be different”, with “one foot in commerce and one foot in art”.
Imbiba said: “It will be defined by the diversity of its offer. The units will be a confederation rather than a chain. They may be edgy and will not be uniform but will be relevant to their customers, will capture the zeitgeist. Hamilton & Bond will have one foot in commerce and one foot in art. The sites will be unusual, unconventional, iconic or unorthodox buildings.”
The company recently secures its first sites for D&W - No 11 Pimlico Rd in West London, and for C&H - a former leather warehouse which has been a restaurant and event space for the past 12 years in in Bermondsey St.
Hawthorn & Hill on food-led pubs with function facilities located across inner London boroughs and currently operates the Yorkshire Grey, a former Sam Smiths site, in Clerkenwell.
A mixture of private equity groups and trade buyers, including Novus, are believed to have shown an interest in Drake & Morgan, the highly-regarded, bar-restaurant operator, which appointed PwC to review its strategic options for the next stage of its growth earlier this year.
