D&D London is negotiating on several sites in “big cities around the UK” as sales at its Leeds restaurants continue to grow, co-founder Des Gunewardena has told M&C Report.
He said the company continues to target growth in the capital and overseas as well as searching for its second hotel site. He also said the company is revisiting some of its flagship restaurants to gauge whether a refresh is needed.
He said the success of last year’s acquisition of the Madison roof top site at One New Change, St Paul’s, had mean he was now more open to growing through acquisitions.
The group’s most recent sales figures showed like-for-likes up 10% with the two Leeds sites (Crafthouse and Angelica) highlighted as star performers.
Gunewardena said: “Our like-for-like sales have continued show strong growth. Christmas was exceptional and I was expecting a tail off at the start of the year, especially when we are heading into an election year. But it seems our customers are feeling fairly confident.
“We were confident that we would succeed in Leeds but I have been surprised at how well we have traded there. On the back of that we have become much more confident about our regional UK strategy. We have got another couple of venues we are negotiating on at the moment in big cities around the UK.”
He described Manchester as a “great city” and “absolutely somewhere we would lie to have a restaurant”.
He added: “Across the country I think the quality of openings is very, very high at the moment. Manchester in particular has seen a real boom and has places that would easily rival London. I think that will continue – there is a momentum for opening restaurants in the cities outside London at the moment.
“That momentum creates an incredibly stimulating environment. There is a lot more competition now and that means we have to push ourselves harder but ultimately that’s good for everyone.
“The innovation builds the market – it makes more and more people eat out and spend more. The total number of restaurants is growing – both at the top end and in casual dining – but everyone is really busy.”
He said despite the appetite to grow the regional portfolio, the company still saw London as its big focus.
He added: “We have just announced our site at Novus and we have a lot of other projects in the pipeline for next year and the year after in London.”
The company opened its first hotel site, South Place Hotel, in 2012 and Gunewardena said he was keen to secure a second site.
He said: “Unlike restaurant sites, where we have a strong pipeline, hotel sites demand a huge investment. We are looking at prime sites in London and we are competing in a very bullish market. The challenge is getting sites where the numbers work. I hope we will be able to announce our second hotel in the next 12 months and we would like to do more.
On acquisitions, he said: “Our main business is finding landmark sites and turning them into beautiful restaurants. But we did acquire a bar and restaurant on top of One New Change called Madison. That has proved a very big success. That was an unusual move for us btu it was very successful and it has meant we are much more willing now to consider buying something interesting if it came along.”
He said several of the company’s flagship sites, including Avenue and Quaglino’s, had been refurbished and more were planned over the next year.
He also said the company was eyeing more international expansion, saying: “We are in Paris, New York and Tokyo and we are now looking more actively at Middle East, Far East and expanding in New York.”
