The Botanist opens tenth site as it plans expansion

The Botanist is set to open its tenth site this week, in Sheffield, as the new team eyes up further growth.

The new bar in the company’s first since the parent company New World Trading Company (NWTC) was acquired by private equity firm Graphite Capital as part of a management buyout in June. It brings the total to The Botanists pubs to ten, with a further 5 bars under The Oast House, Smugglers Cove, The Trading House and The Club House brands.

Chief executive officer Chris Hill, who was part of the MBO, said he was “incredibly excited” to bring The Botanist to Sheffield. “The character and atmosphere of Leopold Square is the perfect location for our brand and we look forward to making Sheffield our next home,” he said. “It’s a stunning space and we’re opening it into a sort of butterfly emporium.”

The new pub comprises 10,000 sq. ft in the grade II listed Prince Leopold’s Music Room in the centre of the city. Set over three floors, it includes a second floor private dining area and an outside seating area.

A further site in York is slated to open in early November.

Expansion plans

In an interview with db, Hill said the Knutsford-based group was planning to open six or seven further sites a year, which was a “nice pace” that would enable it to grow steadily over the next few years.

“We believe we have a business operation that can operate in a number of different locations – from large ventures to smaller ones in the suburbs and some in the tourist areas of Liverpool Docks,” he said. “We’ve only just scratched the surface.”

The Botanists are primarily located in suburban and small to medium-sized towns from Newcastle to Farnham, but Hill is keen to expand its footprint in the South of England as it grows.

“We are looking widely, so can be very responsive to good sites,” he said.

Although the business caters for around 20,000 diners a week, it is two-thirds drinks-led, Hill pointed out, and cocktails have been key to setting it apart from its competitors.

“More people and a wider demographic look at cocktails and at all times of the day. The stereotypical cocktail drinker being a woman, drinking on a Friday or Saturday night is not applicable to us – we sell to male and female, young and older and I feel that is a trend is set to grow,” he said.

The wine list, which concentrates on New World wine, is deliberately tighter, he said, but remained “critical” to its offer.

Hill said there had been little change since Graphite Capital’s acquisition of the company from LDC  (the private equity arm of the Lloyds Banking Group) as part of a £50m deal.

“Very little is different as we were already a standalone self-operating business,” he said.

The first Botanist was founded by the Living Ventures Group in 2011, with LDC coming on board in 2013 when NWTC was spun out of the parent company. Living Ventures Group retains a share in the current business.