ON-TRADE INTERVIEW: Flying High

With big expansion plans, including a second pub at Heathrow, the Geronimo Inns group is firmly in the ascendancy. Rupert Clevely tells Clinton Cawood how he and his wife Joanna built up the business

Behind the comfortable, relaxed atmosphere of the pubs within the Geronimo Inns group there is a clear focus and determination that has ensured its ongoing success. The basic concept of a quality, food-led pub undoubtedly meets consumer demand.

The group started with the tenancy of a single Young’s pub in 1995, and has grown to its current 15 pubs in and around London, with more planned for the near future. One of these will be located within the new St Pancras train station, which is due to accommodate the Eurostar service later this year.

This new opening, along with a planned venue at Heathrow’s Terminal 3, may look like an obvious progression, but Rupert Clevely explains that the business he and his wife Joanna started 11 years ago reached a crossroads last year. “We realised that it was time to either sell, or develop more. I’m still quite young, though, and want to continue. And customers tell us they want more.”

No half measures, however. After securing funding from Penta Capital (which also has an interest in groups such as La Tasca) at the end of last year, the group now has plans to double in the next three years. A far cry from that first tenancy of The Chelsea Ram.

The inspiration for their first acquisition, and subsequently for all Geronimo Inns, has its origins in three years spent in Australia, where  the Clevelys found the venues so strikingly different to male-oriented pubs in London. Applying these experiences to The Chelsea Ram soon led to the opening of two more Young’s pubs. Clevely, who worked for Veuve Clicquot for 20 years, and had remained there during the early days of Geronimo, turned his full attention to the group in 2000.

In a business that can be variable, at best, Geronimo Inns is more secure than most, owing to the flexibility of what Clevely calls a three-pronged approach. “It allows us to cope with the upturns and downturns,” he explains. The combination of central, airport, and Home Counties venues provides an interesting mix of challenges.

Safety in numbers
The recent BA strikes, and their effect on sales in Geronimo’s Heathrow Terminal 1 pub, The Tin Goose, demonstrate the benefits of this strategy perfectly. Another example is the recent changes to London’s congestion charge. “If this affects us, then we limit the impact by having other venues at airports and in the Home Counties,” Clevely explains.

This flexibility has been central to the development of Geronimo Inns. “I would’ve never said that we’d go into the Home Counties, but The Black Swan is now one of our busiest pubs.” The latest acquisition is

The Bullfinch in Sevenoaks, which will undoubtedly acquire a similar feel as other pubs in the group, while retaining its identity. As Clevely explains, “we’re not a brand – we’re a seal of approval.”

The individuality of different pubs in the group is achieved by a combination of management structure, the attention to detail of Joanna Clevely’s design, and Clevely’s policy of giving chefs freedom with each location’s menu. “It’d be much easier to run a brand, with the same look, style and food.”

Clevely points out that there are aspects of running food-led pubs that can limit expansion, particularly outside of London. “The cost of staff is higher out in the country, particularly in the kitchen. The staff here are not microwave technicians.” The only other major limitation to expansion, according to Clevely, is finding sites. “Everyone wants to buy old pubs,” he says. The planned St Pancras venue, at least, circumvents this problem. “When we take spaces, they aren’t normal spaces. There’s something special about a beautiful railway station. In a way, there’s more glamour to getting on a train to Paris than to flying there.” Practically, the St Pancras pub will face less constraints than some of the other Geronimo Inns. Clevely intends to attract more than just travellers, believing that “50% of customers will be from offices nearby.”

At this, and other “high-footfall sites” as Clevely calls them, there are significant differences to the way the venue operates. “At the airport the dynamics are different,” he explains. “People don’t trade up. We thought they would, but they really just want food delivered with speed, and they want it hot. People are nervous, and careful not to spend too much on food and drink.” He adds that this does not apply to other purchases. For example, “Terminal 5 is a shopping centre with planes attached.”

Another noticeably different characteristic of an airport bar is the clientele. Although the domestic or neighbourhood pubs draw a diverse crowd, “in an airport you get a broader cross section of the community,” Clevely says.

Food is far more important at The Tin Goose at Heathrow than at other sites and is responsible for 60% to 70% of sales. Clevely estimates that the average food takings for Geronimo Inns in London is 33%. He points out, however, that “food drives more than 33% of the income.”

An obvious way to benefit from this is with wine, something that Clevely is well placed to take full advantage of. In addition to his 20 years of experience with Veuve Clicquot, his father, John Clevely, is a master of wine. “We’ve spent time nurturing the wine list,” which consists of up to 40 wines, with a significant by-the-glass offering. “Beers are also important to maintain,” says Clevely, “but the selection doesn’t need to be too eclectic.” The selection of both food and drink is high quality, yet not intimidating. Despite the group’s focus on food, there is one description that Clevely does not apply to Geronimo, “The term ‘gastro’ has been bastardised,” he believes.

Clevely has noticed that in the “domestic pubs, people are more willing to trade up, to explore”, something for which Geronimo Inns provides a conducive setting. Speaking of the 100-cover Black Swan in Ockham, he explains that there is “a real bar area for locals, a soft seating area where you could drink Champagne, and there’s a dining area.”

Clevely is modest about the concept behind Geronimo Inns, saying, “We’re not innovators. We’ve just improved on the idea of the British pub, which is an icon around the world.” He also has no illusions about how specific the target audience is. “To say it’s got broad appeal is probably wrong. We mustn’t try to be everything to everyone,” he explains. “There will always be a demand for Toby Carvery.”

With its proven track record of creating comfortable venues, with, as Clevely calls it, “real food in delicious surroundings”, as well as significant funding for expansion, the future looks nothing but positive for Geronimo Inns.

© db March 2007