Living Ventures, the name behind Living Room, Artisan and Gusto, has pledged £7m of investment into Birmingham.
Speaking to EG in the latest West Midlands Focus, the restaurant and bar operator’s chief executive, Tim Bacon, said: Birmingham is finally getting over its identity crisis. It’s now bold and proud and things are finally starting to happen.”
Living Ventures has purchased the James Brindley pub on the city’s canalside close to Brindleyplace. It is seeking planning to knock the building down and create a 10,000 sq ft building incorporating a Smuggling Cove pub and Alchemist bar, which Bacon hopes to open in spring 2017.
The operator is also about to sign a deal to open a Gusto and Alchemist at Horton Estate’s redevelopment of the former Grand Hotel on Colmore Row. “These are great sites, absolutely prime,” Bacon said.
He added: “I’d like to open up a couple more units around The Botanist to feast on its success. As long as they are not on one another’s doorstep, we are keen to populate Birmingham with a variety of brands.”
Bacon confirms that the group is actively looking in leafy Edgbaston, where it could well become an integral part of the redevelopment of the suburb’s 1,500-acre Calthorpe Estate.
“We’re also looking in the likes of Solihull, Harbourne, Henley-in-Arden and Leamington Spa, where the demographics sit alongside our brands,”says Bacon
As for the rest of the West Midlands, When asked about his plans for the likes of Coventry, Wolverhampton and Stoke, Bacon says: “They are not areas we are considering right now. I’ve never been to Coventry and the remit at the moment is Birmingham and the affluent areas that surround it. It’s a strategy that has worked well for us in the likes of Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.”
Since opening in May, The Botanist bar on Birmingham’s Temple Street is rumoured to be taking around £85,000 a week, in a city that has a poor record in attracting quality mid-market operators.
The decision by one of the country’s most respected bar and restaurant groups to invest in an emerging pitch may have surprised many, but it is testament to how perceptions of Birmingham are now changing as a largely untapped, mid-market leisure destination.
Knutsford-based Living Ventures operates 41 bar and restaurants across the country and has created brands such as Living Room, Artisan, Gusto and The Alchemist.
Bacon added: “The Botanist’s performance since opening has been absolutely unbelievable.”
