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Age 52 1970s Spends five years at PizzaExpress. Open his own franchise. Page builds up a portfolio of 14 PizzaExpress franchises, under the company name of G&F Holdings 1980s G&F Holdings enjoys annual profits of £1m 1992 G&F absorbed into PizzaExpress following its sale to Hugh Osmond and Luke Johnson February 1993 PizzaExpress is floated and Page is appointed chief executive June 2003 Page quits PizzaExpress following the £278m purchase of the group by Gondola Express October 2003 Page launches Clapham House Group as a £15m cash shell December 2003 Clapham House purchases The Real Greek for £9m April 2004 Clapham House buys Bombay Bicycle Club for £2.4m October 2004 Page launches his second cash shell, Clerkenwell Ventures, with £5m November 2004 Clapham House buys Gourmet Burger Kitchen for £7.4m Lifestyle Married with three children |
“I’ve been in business for 20 years and haven’t made any money,” says David Page.
This is not what you would expect to hear from a man who once ran PizzaExpress. But, explains Page, sending all his three children to public schools has put a dent in his savings.
All joking aside, Page is at the helm of two lucrative ventures. He is heading up both Clapham House Group — one of the most acquisitive small restaurant groups in the UK, which was launched as a £15m investment company in October 2003 – and Clerkenwell Ventures, which floated on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) last October.
In its first 18 months, Clapham House has made three acquisitions and Page is working to expand the business from 17 to 75 outlets.
During his 10-year tenure as chief executive of PizzaExpress, which ended in 2003, Page opened 350 restaurants. With that experience and success, it may have been safe to assume Page would launch his own pizza restaurant chain, but the domination of the sector by PizzaExpress, ASK and Pizza Hut would have made any potential challenge by Page futile. He is therefore targeting businesses where he believes there are real growth opportunities.
Clapham House, which Page runs with former PizzaExpress finance director, Paul Campbell, made its first purchase in December 2003 with the £9m acquisition of The Real Greek, five weeks after the launch of the company. Hot on its heels came the purchase of the Bombay Bicycle Club restaurant and home delivery service, followed by the Gourmet Burger Kitchen last December.
Page says the three restaurant chains were particularly attractive as they offered both popularity and profitability.
“Greek food has a bad reputation in this country,” he says, “but the high quality of food at The Real Greek was the reason we bought the company.”
The Bombay Bicycle Club was targeted because of the huge number of Indian restaurants operating in the UK. “There are 10,000 Indian restaurants in the UK and someone needs to consolidate them,” says Page. “It’s the same principle with hamburgers. Hamburgers have been taken downmarket by chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King, but now there’s a re-emergence of the quality hamburger, which is why we bought Gourmet.”
So, with three brands acquired in just over a year, what’s next?
“We don’t plan to buy any more brands for now,” says Page. “Three is enough. We’re now looking for premises to aid our expansion, and are in negotiations for individual sites and portfolios.
“We want to have 25 restaurants in each brand by the third year. Then we’ll see where the development strength lies,” he adds.
Page is looking for sites within the M25 or just outside it, like Guildford. He says it’s easier from a management perspective to contain expansion. When Page eventually sells, which he says he will, it will be up to the new owner to go further afield to break the 100-outlet mark.
The company is keen to buy freeholds for as many sites as it can, but because landlords are often reluctant to sell, Page is resigned to buying leaseholds.
But finding premises should not be too difficult. The three brands can operate from all sorts of premises – the Bombay Bicycle Club can trade from as little as 800 sq ft. The delivery shops do not take up a great deal of space, but a decent frontage is always vital because 30% of business is walk-in.
Established in Clapham
The Gourmet Burger Bar in Clapham currently trades from a 900 sq ft site. The restaurant is a tad too small, says Page, but it still works. However, he says the company is looking for slightly bigger sites of around 1,000 sq ft for the expansion of the brand.
At 2,500 sq ft, The Real Greek has the biggest property requirement, and operates from four restaurants across the capital, with another planned for south-west London.
The Bombay Bicycle Club, which comprised one restaurant and five delivery outlets when Clapham House bought it, now has a second restaurant in Hampstead with a third opening in Holland Park. Page expects to have three restaurants and nine delivery outlets operational within six months.
For most people, a restaurant group made up of three growing chains would be enough, but Page has grander plans. Just a year after launching Clapham House, he teamed up with Campbell again to launch another cash shell – Clerkenwell Ventures, which is not active. Page is lining up a major acquisition.
Clerkenwell Ventures will target businesses in the leisure sector using its cash shell as a vehicle to take over private companies in the form of a reverse. Page hopes the reverse method will offer private companies wanting to go public a more attractive and cheaper alternative to an initial public offering.
All eyes on David Lloyd
The group is thought to be eyeing the 57-strong David Lloyd Leisure Club business. Page would not comment on which specific companies Clerkenwell Ventures is targeting, but says he is in discussions with two hotel groups that also run health-club chains.
“We’re looking at top-end health clubs and hotels with other aspects attached to them, such as health clubs or conference centres. We’re speaking to two hotel organisations with health clubs. One is a company denying it is selling anything off,” he adds.
Whitbread, which owns David Lloyd Leisure, has denied it is selling the business. Chairman Sir John Banham has commented: “Whitbread has no plans to sell or dispose of its interest in David Lloyd Leisure.”
The Hilton and De Vere Group are the only other two major hotel groups that run their own health-club businesses. Hilton runs the 75-strong LivingWell chain, while De Vere has its Green’s health-club business.
Page said he expected Clerkenwell Ventures, which will have a capital value of around £300m, to make its first purchase before the summer, and what is known is that after Clapham House Group and Clerkenwell Ventures achieve all the success Page wishes for them, it is unlikely he will claim again that he has made no money in the past 20 years.
