Draft House, the London-based craft beer bar concept led by Charlie McVeigh, is poised for its next stage of development after securing its sixth site in the capital, M&C Report has learnt.
The five-strong group, which is backed and chaired by Luke Johnson, has exchanged on The Birdcage in Bethnal Green and McVeigh told M&C Report that the group is poised for “quick growth” and has in place the structure to open a site every three to four months.
The company is set to see turnover reach the £5m mark by the end of this month and McVeigh believes the business is on track to increase this by c60% over the next 12 months.
McVeigh said: “It has been very frustrating over the last 12 months in terms of securing sites and we have been under offer on a number of properties that have fallen out of bed due to a number of reasons. However, it is only over the last three to four months that I have truly felt we have been in position to grow and we are now set to enter a very exciting period for the company.
“Due to the current state of the property market in London we have had to change our whole approach to site selection, but that seems to be paying off. We are under offer on another two sites and have exchanged on The Birdcage, which we hope to open in November. Profit levels and sales have continued to be strong over the year and we have a very supportive bank in HSBC behind us, so all seems that things finally falling in to place.”
McVeigh paid tribute to the impact former JDW man Richard Peachment had had on the business since joining as operations director, which has improved performance across the group’s existing estate and allowed himself to focus on developing the company’s pipeline.
Michael Penfold at AG&G acted on the Birdcage deal on behalf of the vendor.
