Potel & Chabot plans London office

Upmarket French caterer Potel & Chabot is planning to open an office in London next year.

Speaking to the drinks business, Franck Jeantet, chairman of the company said, “2012 is an important year in London with the Olympics and we are trying to come into London to see if there is the potential for us to do French type of events during the opening ceremony and before.”

Potel & Chabot has appointed Antoine de Navacelle as the caterer’s representative in the UK and Jeantet believes that the company will have a permanent office in London by the end of next year.

“We are using the Olympics as a reason, but even if there was no Olympics we would be going to London in 2012 or 2013 at the latest,” he added.

The company has expanded rapidly since 2009 when Jeantet was appointed chairman of the historic caterer, which was founded in 1820 in Paris.

Jeantet has overseen the opening of a Monaco office in June 2010 to add to its Paris, New York and Moscow outposts.

More recently, in September this year, it added a further office in Bordeaux, to cover the south west of France as far as Biarritz.

Jeantet is planning further offices in Switzerland and the Middle East, and speaking of the latter area, he told db, “We are looking to open an office at the end of 2012 or early 2013 in Dubai.”

As for Potel & Chabot’s operations in France, Jeantet said that the company’s performance was promising. “We are the market leader in France and it is very healthy – we have very great numbers in 2011 and we are looking forward to 2012; there is a good mood for the event business in the year to come.”

Continuing, he said that the upmarket events business which Potel & Chabot serves “was not suffering from the crisis and luxury brands are doing very well in Paris, and globally.”

Nevertheless, the caterer, which manages the food and service for 15,000 events each year, and turns over as much as €100 million, has noted that people are looking for less expensive drinks.

“Bordeaux is very popular and all the grands crus classés take a big place in our wine list but the crisis has had an impact on the type of wine we sell,” said Jeantet, adding, “In the last months, we’ve noticed that our clients are being more careful about the type of wine they serve and the price.”