Times Place Brasserie

Idea

Introduction

We are looking to take on an existing restaurant site in west London. Our research shows that the restaurant has a good dinner trade and some lunch trade. We are looking to increase the lunch trade and improve the weekend daytime offering, thus allowing us to increase profitability. The restaurant is currently making a profit of around £5,000 per month. We have negotiated a price of £110,000 to take the site on and will also have to pay £40,000 for the kitchen equipment, chairs, tables, wine stocks etc. This will be paid in equal amounts over a 12 month period. The restaurant is an area where there is a large residential population, but there are also offices nearby providing the opportunity to develop the lunchtime trade. The restaurant has a brunch trade at weekends, but we believe that this can be developed further. There is a garden at the back of the restaurant, which is not currently used and we will be investigating the potential to make use of this during the summer months.

Intended impact

We feel that this is already a good business, but there is the potential to increase the lunch trade, the brunch trade at weekends and to use the garden space during the summer months. The current owners have steadily built the business and we think they have broadly done a good job. There is a sizeable kitchen, which is big enough to absorb additional trade if the garden is used during the summer. The restaurant is nicely fitted out and so we feel there is no need to immediately refurbish. The current staff are happy to stay, although the head chef is returning to South Africa after Christmas. We plan to source another chef to take over. There are currently six kitchen staff and six front of house staff and we aim to have these numbers remain the same post acquisition of the restaurant.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Good service will be a top priority. Trip Advisor is an influential site in this sector and the aim will be to achieve a rating of 4/5. The food that is currently served is of good quality and is Argentine themed. We will be looking to keep the steak element of the menu, but will be widening the choice, making the menu more appealing to female diners. The fact that there is already a substantial evening trade makes this an attractive business, but it is possible to enhance profitability further by improving the daytime offering.

Monetisation strategy

There is already a profitable restaurant operating on the site that will be taken on. We intend to keep the best elements of the current offering and add in some ideas of our own in order to enhance profitability. The current run rate is £60k per annum in terms of profits and we expect to be able to increase this. The addition of an outside space will allow us to increase profitability further and we will also look to have a number of events too. There is a substantial residential community just behind the restaurant and there are further residential units currently being constructed on a former NHS site. There is a small amount of takeaway trade at the moment and we will investigate developing this by creating dishes that can be warmed up at home easily.

Use of proceeds

£110k will be paid to the vendors and the remainder will be used for working capital.