Brasserie Bar Co, the operator of the White Brasseries and Brasserie Blanc chains, has secured a new £20m funding facility from bank OakNorth, writes The Times.
The Mark Derry-led, 35-strong group, is to use the new finance a roll-out of 24 new sites and employ a further 700 staff by 2022.
It currently operates 15 White Brasserie pub sites and 20 Brasserie Blanc restaurants, with the latest restaurant site set to open in Fulham Reach.
Derry told The Times that a key feature of Brasserie Bar Co’s strategy is to pick relatively remote locations.
He said: “Every high street is getting fuller and fuller of ever more interesting and good things. So the last thing I want to do is plonk more stuff down on the high street. You can’t build another pub in Oxshott [in Surrey], the kind of locations we have. As long as you don’t make a mess of it, there’s no reason why it can’t be sustainable.
“We don’t follow fashions. We like stuff that won’t go pear-shaped at the drop of a hat. In the broader sector, unless you’ve got a property strategy you’ve got a problem. Pubs offer us an avenue into more remote locations. It’s an underinvested sector with a sad 20-year history. We can put our people and money to work to improve interesting and fun places.”
The company typically will invest £1m in a pub, which helps to explain why it is still loss-making despite growing sales.
To date, the group has been backed by equity investment from private equity firm, Core Capital Partners LLP, and debt provided by ESO Capital in 2014, which enabled it to rebrand and refurbish the Brasserie Blanc restaurants, and expand the White Brasserie brand.
Following the rebrand, the business revealed an increase in turnover from £37m to £41m in 2016.
Earlier this year, the group announced plans to open restaurants in hotels with the first one having opened this month at the Bournemouth Highcliff Marriott Hotel.
