M&C Report takes a closer look at the full-year results from Richoux, the Aim-list restaurant group, and talks to Ed Standring, managing director, about the group’s expansion plans and its brands – Dean’s Diner, Villagio, Zippers and Richoux.
Expansion
The group hopes to have grown to a 30-strong estate by 2015, as it looks to grow all four of its current brands. Standring told M&C Report that the group had a good pipeline in place for its expansion plans next year and in 2015, after 18 months of getting the “nuts and bolts” of the business right.
He said: “We will take a sensible approach to the rollout of the brands, with Dean’s Diner, Villagio and Zippers are main focus going forward. We believe that there different price points and offers allows the flexibility to look at opportunities across a broad spectrum of locations, from high street to retail/leisure park to shopping centre. All three have a competitive price point.”
Standring said the group hadn’t ruled out adding to its four-strong Richoux estate, but that opportunities in London were hard to secure. “It is an increasingly competitive marketplace, but we haven’t ruled out opening further sites under the brand.”
The 14-strong company will open five sites in total this year. It has so far opened a Villagio in Chiswick, with a Dean’s Diner set to follow on 23 May at the Whiteley Village in Fareham. Standring said the group was in legals on three further sites for openings under each of Dean’s Diner, Villagio and Zippers before the end of the year. He said: “We are on track to open five new sites this year, but we may do a couple more if everything lands.”
The expansion will initially be funded by the group’s cash reserves of c£4m and its “strong cash flow”.
Villagio
Villagio is a modern local Italian family restaurant, which has an average spend per head of £16. The group now has six Villagio restaurants- the existing restaurants in Andover, Hammersmith, and Berkhamsted, the rebranded restaurant in Basildon, and new restaurants in Chislehurst, which opened in December 2012 and Chiswick, which opened in March 2013.
Standring said that the Villagio sites continue to trade in line with expectations in what is “the most competitive part of the market”.
Dean’s Diner
Dean’s Diner is a 1950’s classic American Diner, with an average spend per head of c£10. The company currently has three Dean’s Diner restaurants in Chatham, Port Solent and Braintree following the rebranding, during the period of the Dean’s Diner restaurant in Basildon as a Villagio restaurant.
Standring said: “Dean’s is the ideal brand for high footfall locations and therefore we are looking at shopping centres and Cinema-anchored schemes.”
Zippers
Zippers is a contemporary family restaurant with “an extensive range of dishes to suit all tastes”. It has an average spend per head of £15.50. The group has one Zippers site in Chatham which continues to trade in line with expectations, and Standring said that the group had plans in place “to move the Zippers estate forward” soon.
