Matt Scriven, the founder of Birmingham-based Bitters n Twisted Venues, has told MCA the group is likely to scale back on expansion because of the increasingly competitive market.
Scriven said recent openings for the group’s rollout vehicle, the South American themed Bodega Cantina, had been slow to get off the ground although were now performing well.
The next opening for the brand will be in Sutton Coldfield and Scriven said going forward the group was likely to focus more on sites close to Birmingham, where the brand is well known.
He said recruitment remained a challenge and indicated that national operators coming to Birmingham were struggling to find the right staff.
He also revealed that the group is vacating the New Inn at Harborne after a “significant” rent increase and a 160% increase in the site’s rateable value. It is understood that landlord Marston’s is planning to refurbish and re-open the venue under the Revere brand later in the year.
Scriven spoke to MCA on the back of the release of the group’s financial results for the year to 31 August 2016, in which turnover increased 13.2% to £7.8m across its ten venues. EBITDA meanwhile was in line with the previous year at £1.16m. Removing the effect of the two new openings in the period, like-for-like sales increased 8.2%.
During the period, the group opened two new sites - Buffalo & Rye in Birmingham city centre and a Bodega Cantina in Leicester. Scriven said both sites had “gotten off to a solid if unspectacular start which seems to be the name of the game these days against a backdrop of ever stiffer competition, increasing customer demands and competition for good quality hospitality staff”.
Since the end of the period a new Bodega Cantina opened in Derby in April 2017 and a fifth Bodega Cantina is planned for Sutton Coldfield in September.
On the challenges for Bodega, Scriven said: “We have found that outside Birmingham no-one knows the brand. We are getting great feedback but it’s been challenging to build that trust and buy-in.”
He said in response the company was now starting its recruitment process earlier generally three months out with a six-week induction period for new staff.
On the issue of recruitment, he said: “Recruitment has got a little bit easier certainly on the junior manger because experienced the likes of Living Ventures, and the way they do things, and they’ve not liked it. But the general manager and head chef pool is as narrow as it’s ever been. What we’re finding is that people like Gaucho and Gusto and the Alchemist are coming into Birmingham and finding it tougher than they thought it would be and left it a little bit last minute on recruitment then making decisions that aren’t perhaps for the long-term. I think Birmingham will continue to be a place that is seen as very tough for a long time to come.
“The competition is healthy because it makes us better ourselves. Customers are definitely still up for grabs – they’re not loyal – and if you continue to put interesting things in front of them they will continue to come. But when you’ve got new concepts coming into the city where everything is smoking and spectacular, your sweety jar cocktails just don’t cut the mustard.”
On plans for further expansion, he said: “There’s an element of opportunism there but certainly after Sutton Coldfield there’s nothing in the pipeline. I have a feeling that after that we’ll hunker down for a bit and concentrate on our processes and controls. If we do add more sites the likelihood is that they’ll be a little closer to Birmingham rather than going out to places like Derby and Leicester.
“The plan is still to focus on Bodega. That’s not to say that if a great site and a great idea comes along I won’t go for it but it’s certainly not the plan at the moment.”
