Sir Terence Conran, the furnishings and restaurant entrepreneur, is to resurrect plans to rollout his Albion Cafe concept after securing a second site in London.
According to The Times, Conran will use the proceeds from the sale of his 51% stake in D&D London, to turn Albion into a chain. A 160-cover site will open this summer at NEO Bankside, the residential development on the South Bank, with further sites to follow.
He said: “Albion has been a smash hit in Shoreditch and we believe it is a popular concept that will work well.”
The entrepreneur spoke at the end of 2009 of plans to use the concept to build a “British Carluccio’s”. However, the concept’s original site in London’s Shoreditch remains the only outlet after the company pulled out of a site at the Land Securities development in Wilton Road, Victoria.
The group was due to take the unit next to the Giraffe restaurant but this was assigned to Le Pain Quotidian.
Conran had announced plans to invest up to £15m in the rollout of Albion in London and had negotiated leases on further sites near Covent Garden and Regent’s Park but these were also cancelled.
Peter Prescott, partner with Conran in the joint venture Prescott & Conran Ltd, told M&C Report in 2011 that the company still planned to open further sites under the concept but had withdrawn from opening the planned sites in order to “review its rollout strategy and concentrate on other activities”.
He said: “it is definitely something we will return to but at the moment it is on the backburner.”
