Insight • Alignment and synchronicity – but in summary I think we were successful in scaling this brand up successfully because everybody and everything was in "sync" – our backers supported us, our team loved the brand, our customers (we had 250,000 website members at one stage) loved the experience we gave them. Our suppliers loved working for a growing brand, all our stakeholders were aligned, that’s why we maintained our growth – everybody was on board, we were all in it together! In short, alignment and having great partners is crucial (staff, customer, suppliers, local communities, shareholders etc) and communication between all is fundamental to building a great brand from the bottom–up.
4. Drake and Morgan: rolling it out, by Jillian McLean Jillian McLean is the founder of London-based bar group Drake and Morgan. After an extremely successful launch in 2008, the brand now has 14 sites generating a turnover of circa £25m with an Ebitda of £3.2m. During the next phase of its development, it aims to reach 20 to 25 units with a turnover of £70m and Ebitda of £10m. McLean has vast experience of the sector, having previously run some of the UK’s fastest-growing brands. Having successfully launched our concept, our attention has turned more recently to addressing the next stage of its development – scaling the brand up through a targeted roll-out plan. As its founder, with new investors on board, I have had to spend a great deal of time wrestling with a conundrum – how do we successfully "scale up" the brand without losing its "core" momentum. Based on my role here and my leadership experience rolling out brands for corporates in the past, it is my view that – in addition to all the obvious activities and tasks – the following "props" will be critical in effecting a successful roll-out for Drake & Morgan. • B to C team – while a great team has got us from A to B in our journey, through creation and start-up, we have had to spend a lot of time recruiting people with roll-out skills and experience that can get us through the next stage. Our first phase of development was characterised by energy, passion and a "can-do" attitude; this current phase requires more of a planning and organisational mindset (without undermining the brand essence)! In addition, we have had to be quite ruthless in making sure business does not "tail off" in our original sites through distractions posed by openings elsewhere. • Robust service platform – due to my corporate background, our business systems were relatively finely tuned and templated from day one. However, our new investors quite rightly challenged us to ensure our service model was replicable as we scaled up. Working with Pragma (a consultancy specialising in service delivery) we have simplified the customer service model by reducing the number of "touch points" within the customer journey. This simplification will lead to greater consistency of
execution from our teams and clarity of understanding from our customers as we move forwards. Sometimes, as a founder, you need to step back – certainly during the roll-out phase – and question how can we do things better, faster, slicker. And you must be prepared to discard what you initially thought were "sacred cows" to make the brand more "fit" for roll-out (again, without compromising the essence of the brand!) • Trend/Density tracking – of course we have carried out a lot of analysis on our current sites to define a robust "sitefinding template" (demographics, footfall requirements, building aesthetics, scale of unit etc). We have also made great efforts to understand not only where our market is now but also where it is going to. We’ve carried out a lot of work on demographic trends with McCann Erikson, while GVA Grimley has also helped us look at footfalls and densities in London. Customer traffic is constantly shifting; we need to understand transport hub plans, office development proposals and local improvement initiatives. This is where new "exploitable" markets and customer flows will exist in the future. • Landlord/Tenant relationships – when we have located prospective sites it is also crucial we create great relationships with landlords, principal tenants and developers. We have got to understand what their needs are and how we can pitch successfully for landmark sites. In 2008, we were on a shortlist of one when we pitched, now we can be up against nearly ten rival concepts to get the best locations. We have to ensure – certainly in office locations – we are perceived as being of high value-added to landlords/developers such as Land Securities and Heron – and really wanted by adjacent principal tenants such as the large media and hi-tech companies that rent the dominant space. We must emphasise our all-day proposition, quality positioning and value-led characteristics (within a broader upmarket context) to make sure they want us, time and again. • Concept flexibility – over time we have developed a systemised "turn-key" approach to developing sites (12-week build and fit-out, two weeks pre-opening training, followed by a soft launch). But we must always retain a degree of flexibility in two respects. Firstly, when we open a new site, 35% of our business is pre-booked so we find out pretty quickly customers likes and dislikes. This enables us to go back in to "reset" a few things; which is fine because our concept runs on an 85% fixed/15% flexible philosophy. Secondly, given the space constraints we face, we have proof-tested smaller formats which, while maintaining the essence of the brand, will enable us to access far more site opportunities in the future. As the founder of this brand with a great deal of influence from my sister Amanda, who is based in San Francisco and whose perspectives and knowledge derived from west coast American dining have been a critical ingredient of our success, I am conscious we have entered a new "acceleration" phase of brand development following "origination". This has meant I have had to adopt ▲
Drake and Morgan opening this summer at Heathrow Terminal 4
www.propelinfonews.com ¡ SPRING 2015 ¡ PROPEL QUARTERLY
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