Inside Track by Mark Wingett
As combinations go - a Soho attic, broken air-conditioning units, trips to New York and early morning police cells visits - it sounds more like a Guy Ritchie movie script ready for development rather than the origins of one of the UK’s most popular and successful fast-casual chains. But then again there has always been something a little different about Byron since its launch in Kensington in the summer of 2007 to the 30-strong operation it is today.
One is the paradox that lies at the heart of the business, a concept that is independent in spirit and appearance but backed by one of the UK’s biggest restaurant operators, PizzaExpress, Zizzi and Ask Italian owner Gondola. Sitting opposite me at one of the chain’s latest sites in London in Store Street, it is a point Gondola CEO Harvey Smyth and Byron founder Tom Byng are happy to take head on.
Starting with the concept’s origins in the Easter of 2007 and a friend of a friend bringing the two together to the misconception on my part that Byng was brought in to ‘pep up’ Gondola’s Jo Shmo’s burger concept, which was already by then three-sites strong.
“That’s not true,” says Smyth. “There is no way I could have got Tom to come in and have a conversation about doing something together if it was about Jo Shmo’s.
“We talked about restaurants. I said to him that I couldn’t see us working together on something we already had but if he was interested in exploring something new then we should have a chat.”
At the time, Byng had been operating Zucca in Notting Hill, which he set up with help from friends and family, and 192 on Kensington Park Road for the best part of a decade, after spending two years in an advertising agency. But after years of countless broken air conditioning units and fishing chefs out of hospital or police stations, he was ready for a change in direction.
He says: “I always wanted to be a restaurateur and grow a business. You get a lot of things chucked in your way if you do it on your own, constraints on capital, level of debt, you need to recognise someone to help you. From talking to Harvey I recognised what Gondola could give the business and what a step up that would be.”
As with most of the best things in life, the rest of the decision to proceed was simple.
Smyth continues: “Tom said I have this idea for hamburgers. We both like hamburgers so we talked some more. Tom did a couple of further trips to New York and we ended up saying let’s have a crack at this together.”
Byng says: “From time spent in the US, I remembered the very simple fast-grill hamburgers you could find in countless joints over there, but back in London in 2007 you couldn’t find that kind of hamburger, so we decided to do it ourselves.
“For us proper means letting the flavour of the beef come through. The idea of a classic burger is a great bun, great beef, simple toppings, which we have tried to take to its natural conclusion. Find that great beef, exclusively from Scotland, a bespoke recipe, a fresh approach.”
Byron - named half after the vegetarian poet, half because it means “cowshed” in Old English - was born.
Both parties recognise what each could bring to the table. “What we could bring to the party was access to sites and money,” says Smyth.
“Restaurants only work if you have conviction in what you are doing, and soul and personality, whether you are running four or 400. PizzaExpress had always been a conviction business, Tom is a committed bloke and we wanted to see how his vision would develop.”
“I call it a ready-made network: what’s best practice, how should I be building a structure for growth,” says Byng.
“I had a sounding board on my doorstep. A bunch of people more than happy to give their perspective to help. To be able to have good people that close to call on was a great benefit, but also to have the space to develop something entrepreneurially where there was no pressure in terms of suppliers, marketing or recruitment.
“You know some people when they start up may look back and say they had cut corners to get where they were, we were determined to not do that. That is where the good parenting of Gondola paid dividends.”
Preparation and delivery of offer has been the key from the first site to the group’s latest. Byng says: “There was integrity around the food, and proper restaurants make sure the teams are smiling, engaging. We recruit around personality - it is not a highly-skilled concept. Intrinsically we want smiley, happy people we can train up, people that can entertain guests. In terms of growth, it is all about the people you have, so, if we get it right to start with, it is then a virtuous circle.
“We are trying to breed a ‘going-to-work-is-fun culture’.”
Although surprised may be pushing it too far, both seem genuinely taken aback by how quickly the concept has been accepted by sector commentators and, more importantly, consumers. EBITDA in its last financial year was estimated to be £4.2m, with continued very strong growth so far this year, helped by the group’s comfortfood appeal and value-for-money offer (£15 a head).
Byng says: “We didn’t spend months and years researching the potential for these up and down the country. The first two or three years it was one restaurant at a time. It was really understanding the concept, getting better at the things we were good at and opening in places where we felt people would like proper hamburgers.
“We never really treated it like a numbers game. We wanted to open restaurants designed for the local audience and local community, respecting the building and its surroundings, but giving it our take on that area, not say having clocks on the walls just because we opened in Greenwich.”
Smyth says it was not a question of how many sites the group could open, but “looking forward and asking what are we trying to achieve”.
He says: “Evolving the proposition and offer has been as much of the ambition as rolling out the concept. The more we have done that the more successful the business has been and the greater our appetite to push the concept out there. We are not sitting there thinking we are going to do x number of sites. It was let’s do one properly, not let’s have 500 of these. It was an instant hit which threw us at first, we had to ask ourselves do we want to grow?”
Byron has all the disciplines that you expect, but it’s the culture of the business that takes it to the next level.
General manager turnover stands at just 10%. The chain’s senior team now stands 45, which includes store and area managers. Dwell time stands at 40 to 45 minutes, and Byng says the he and his team are constantly looking at tweaking and enhancing the offer.
To prove that point he has just come back from LA where he sampled 35 hamburgers in three days in LA, the “hard yards” he says with a smile.
“We are not spreading ourselves too thin. Too many chains try to do too many things and move away from their core strength. We don’t want to fall into that trap,” he says.
But what of the future? As Byng points out, the opened sites are growing still, and people are still finding the brand for the first time. Sites in Liverpool and Cambridge have already been secured, while it is thought that further units in Clapham, Manchester and at Trinity Leeds will follow.
Some sites will be converted from the group’s sister brands. “It takes time to find the right sites. We are always looking at the total estate and what works well for the location,” says Smyth.
There is also the chance to push its own craft beer -which is brewed in conjunc-tion with Camden Brewery - into the retail sector, something its parent company Gondola can aid through its success with PizzaExpress. But first a key decision has to be made.
There is also the challenge of rival operators, with Gourmet Burger Kitchen finally turning around two years of inertia under Alasdair Murdoch and Capricorn Ventures DC Advisory is currently employed by Gondola to review the chain’s options after a number of approaches from the private-equity world, and while a sale appears the favourite end game - price tag rumoured to be £100m - there seems some genuine reluctance from across the table in regards to a parting of the ways.
As Smyth points out: “We’ve got loads of options, one of which might be doing nothing. It has been way more successful than we imagined it would be, and understandably on the back of that we have had a number of approaches.
“We are taking that slowly, we need to see what the right next step is for Byron. It has huge potential and longevity as long as we treat it properly, which includes the ownership structure.”
If a sale does materialise, Smyth should be applauded for backing Byng’s vision and allowing him the space to develop and roll out the concept. A new owner will get one of the best concepts to emerge in the sector over the past decade and if he wishes to stay, and surely Byng and Byron go hand in hand, one of the best operators.
But that is for another time. Five years on did either think they were taking a gamble on each other when they planed the launch of the concept in the attic office Gondola used to own above a Soho-based Thai restaurant?
Smyth says: “There is always a risk, but where we are now, the quality of offer and people is a testament to Tom. I’m more than happy that we were introduced.”
Byng says: “We didn’t have the time to have doubts, momentum is a great thing. All start ups need a bit of luck, but the hard work and principles with which we have developed the business seems to have struck a chord with people. Long may that continue.”
