The man behind Yo! Sushi reckons he could be about to “revolutionise the apartment for the first time since its invention”. Dragons’ Den star Simon Woodroffe tells Emily Wright how he plans to do it – with some help from the world of theatre. Portrait by Will Bremridge
It’s all to prove myself,” says Simon Woodroffe, flicking his hand around the living room on his million-pound Chelsea houseboat. “All of it. I have spent my life fighting to prove myself. It’s where my drive came from. And drive often stems from failure.
“If you are someone who is really happy, has loads of friends and a nice job – why would you put yourself through so much shit?”
One would be forgiven for bristling at such a comment from the multimillionaire behind the £41m Yo! Sushi empire.
But the “shit” he is referring to is the process behind, rather than the product of, his success. It is a process he says left him with few friends, low self-esteem and the nickname “Steamroller”.
And it was a long process. Woodroffe ricocheted his way through his youth – he says he hit every possible bump in the road along the way: drugs, prison, divorce. Not to mention an increasingly strained relationship with his middle-class parents after he left school at 16 to become a roadie for Mick Jagger – a man his father once described as “a very unsavoury character” – and live in squats in and around London.
A series of turbulent stints in stage management and TV left him in “a dark place”, before he finally came up with the idea for Yo! Sushi and successfully launched the business at the age of 45.
Now aged 60, he says: “I still have drive. But not to prove myself anymore. I have drive to do things just because I want to.” And that is where his next venture comes in.
This week, Woodroffe will launch a prototype apartment as part of his Yo! Home business at 100% Design.
This is his idea for the home of the future – a cyborg-esque vision based on moving walls, floors and ceilings and the power to reconfigure your home at the touch of a button, effectively creating a possible 3,000 sq ft of space as a result of all the potential options in an 800 sq ft room.
He says the idea could “revolutionise the apartment around the world for the first time since its invention”.
It is a massive claim. But the former Dragons’ Den star is entirely unfazed. If it’s a hit, great. If not? “It has cost me £300,000 to develop the prototype and that’s nothing to me. I would pay that just to see what it looks like,” he says with stark honesty.
Here, the man behind sushi conveyor belts, hotel rooms devoid of natural light and, now, mechanical homes, reveals why he does not believe in market research, how he finally proved himself and why he thinks people will take one look at Yo! Home and say “why didn’t I think of that?”.
Value for money
Woodroffe says that, apart from making life easier and more flexible for potential future buyers, YO! Home is about “taking what the rich have and giving it to everyone”.
Whether or not this will be the case remains to be seen. As this is all at prototype stage, it is hard to pin him down on price – a pretty crucial element when determining whether a product will sink or swim.
What Woodroffe does admit is that there will be a “relatively small” mark-up on the standard price one might expect to pay for an 800 sq ft apartment, based on regional average house prices – although he is unable to give any detail at this stage.
But he insists that, when you think about the options and flexibility you are getting with a Yo! Home, it works out as good value for money.
“Yo! Home is basically a room the size of a squash court,” he says. “But uses the mechanics of stage scenery for 11 moving parts – walls, floors, ceilings. And you can move them at the touch of a button to create up to 20 different configurations.
“So in the same space that is, one day, a one-bed apartment with a large living room, the next day it can be a two-bed apartment, or a one-bed apartment with room for a cinema, or one huge party space. Whatever you want, just by moving different parts.
“When you start thinking about it like that, you actually have almost 3,000 sq ft at your disposal. And that makes it extremely good value.”
He says that his branded homes will be part of office blocks in major cities in the UK, the US, perhaps Japan and wherever else they may take off. As for who they are aimed at – who knows? Certainly not Woodroffe: “I have never, ever done any market research,” he says. “For one, you can’t market research something that’s never been done.”
He does say that he imagines the apartments facilitating modern day living. For example, somewhere in the city where “a guy works four days a week in a one-bed apartment then, when the wife and kids come to stay at the weekend, he can move a wall to make it into a two-bed, and turn the study into a play room”.
The idea is an intriguing one. But the big question is whether people will feel duped by the 3,000 sq ft for 800 sq ft sales pitch. Or whether they want to live in such a highly-branded home. This is not exactly a Berkley or a Barratt – brands associated with housebuilding as standard.
Thinking sushi
You think Yo!, you think sushi, and there is a question over whether people would feel comfortable having such a strong retail brand infiltrating their living space.
“Names are a funny thing,” says Woodroffe. “Every residential block you see around the city has a name on the front. I think you’ll find this will be successful.
“Moving parts and reconfiguration at the touch of a button? It’s the ultimate James Bond home.”
It is not exactly an answer to the question but then, Woodroffe points out, whether people like the idea is not a matter of survival for him anymore. If it doesn’t work he says he will probably build one anyway just to see what it looks like, and “maybe for a friend to live in”.
As for the interiors – people will be able to customise their own as part of their purchase. They will have a blank canvas and can choose from a range of options.
Woodroffe doesn’t know quite what these will be yet but suggests “Gucci”, “cosy home” and “sleek designer” as possible examples.
The launch of Yo! Home this week will certainly have raised some interest, and probably a few eyebrows. But the transition from prototype to reality will be the real test.
Woodroffe has had a small team of theatre set experts helping to build the prototype. But how does he see the venture going forward in reality?
“With Yo Home I probably won’t be the developer and, if not, then we will license to other developers.
“I think some will be new-build and some will be converted 80s office blocks as they have the right sort of high ceilings we’re after.
“At this stage, though, we’re just waiting to see what people think of the prototype. But I really do believe this will be a great success. We are reinventing the apartment for the first time. That’s something. That’s huge.”
The Steamroller
Much of Woodroffe’s confidence is buoyed by the fact that it does not really matter to him if Yo! Home is not a roaring success: “Nothing keeps me awake at night these days,” he says. “I don’t need this to work. There doesn’t need to be a contingency.
“It hasn’t always been like that. I have never had good grades to fall back on after leaving school at 16 and I have had many dark times in my life living in squats following career paths that didn’t work out.
“I had to crawl my way slowly back up from that. I knew I had to fight for everything. It’s a precarious position to be in. You could lose the lot. And that’s a scary thought.”
It was the drive that stemmed from fear of failure that earned Woodroffe his nickname “Steamroller”.
Now used publicly and mildly affectionately, the name was not so light-hearted when it was first coined: “It was used behind my back at first,” he says. “Given to me by someone I used to work with. It was useful in business as I steamrollered through everything to get my way.
“But I didn’t bring anyone with me. I lost a lot of friends and got divorced and it was when I started to think that maybe, just maybe, my problems might have something to do with me.”
He is happier now, he says, having proved his worth after all these years. The million pound boat, the multi-million-pound businesses, the reality TV programme fame, the very real fortune – he has it all. So now, perhaps, the Steamroller can finally take it easy.
The explosive world of Yo!
Woodroffe is vague when it comes to the other strands of his empire these days: “With Yo! Sushi there are plans to expand,” he says. “We are opening eight or nine new restaurants a year and a lot in America.”
However, he would not be drawn on specific wheres and whens. And it is a similar story with Yotel – the entrepreneur’s pod-style hotel vision based on luxury aeroplane cabins.
Initially built to service major UK airports, the latest hotel building was opened in central New York, just two blocks from Time Square.
There are talks of further expansion, though Woodroffe would not expand on details at this stage.
