What’s your background?
I joined Apostrophe in July last year after four/five months of talking to CH&Co, which entered into a joint venture with Apostrophe in January 2012. Prior to this, I was with EAT for just under 10 years. I was head of central operations, responsible for 64 stores across London. Turnover at that point was £52 million. I joined EAT when it was the same size as Apostrophe is now.
How did you get into hospitality?
When I was 14 I did some work experience in a hotel. I then got a part time job in a hotel as a waiter and I loved it. It kind of evolved from that. In my younger days I was restaurant manager for Moshi Moshi Sushi and I also worked for ASK restaurants for some time. I also worked for BHS in the foodservice department. EAT was the longest role I had, spanning 10 years of my career.
What does your day to day role involve?
For the last four months it has been very much about looking at the business and going into the detail by shop and recognising that we need to innovate more. So part of what I have done is create more feeling around innovation, and a bit more excitement around the teams. The food is our biggest priority. We are a high street business where we get a lot of competition around us, so we know that we need to keep people interested.
How does your role compare with EAT?
I am an operator, that’s where I have come from and that’s what I love and to be able to get hold of a business this side is quite exciting. Twenty two Apostrophe shops may not sound a lot but the work that goes into making them right is essential. My operations experience will allow me to work with the finance and marketing team to get into the nuts and bolts to take the business forward. I am loving it. It has been six months, I haven’t slept a lot, but I have enjoyed every minute of it so far.
How important is CH&Co to the business?
Employing 3000 people and with seven brands, CH&Co is an amazing business. Stuart Lawson, non executive director, has been integral to the change in the business. It is very much about quality and their people. They know exactly how to look after their people.
Identify your competition
I feel we are very unique and we know we are evolving. When you look in the city our competitors are people like Pure and Benugo but in terms of coffee I feel we are way ahead of the game. Our coffee sales are about 48% of our overall sales.
Who are your customers?
Again, it depends on the demographic of the area. The city is flying for us at the minute. We are very well recognised and loved here in the city. We are doing very good business. Apostrophe is quite male dominated. The surroundings of our stores is quite masculine, but going forward we definitely want to add a more ‘arty’ feel to our stores. I guess without saying it, we are trying to be trendy but at the same time we need to be appealing to everybody.
What is your long term strategy?
We want to be innovative and a foodie brand that people enjoy and want to return to time after time. This time next year I plan to have the operational team where we feel it needs to be. We can then look at expanding. I know Apostrophe would do very well in Leeds and Manchester. I am excited what the future will bring. I think there’s the opportunity for it to be a national brand.
What are Apostrophe’s weaknesses and strengths?
Starting with the weaknesses, and we’re not too shy to say it, we haven’t moved forward enough. We haven’t innovated in the last two, three years, hence why CH&Co wanted to buy Apostrophe as they saw the potential. They wanted someone to come in and shake it up and bring something new, which is where I come in. From the experience I have had, they wanted someone to start over again. We know the food is what people predominately think about at lunchtime. They want it to be fresh, innovative, and they want to be excited every time. We are working on changing the menu and making it more about what our customers want. We have spent a lot of time listening to our customers.
And the strengths?
I could talk to you all day about our strengths. We are a brand which has a massive loyalty forum. You never walk out of one of our shops which is empty. You are sitting in a shop which is 18 months old with 75% like for like growth. Last week alone we had 45% like for like sales. Shops like this are integral to our plan.
Another strength is the amount of talent CH&Co can take Apostrophe forward with. It’s massive. Apostrophe has always been a very small team but now we have a great recruitment team, marketing director, procurement team and more. We now have all the right people in the business to take it forward.
There is a lot of interest in the Apostrophe brand. I get emails every day and phone calls every other day about landlords telling us they have some great opportunities for us, asking us when are we ready to roll out. We are very clear that we still have work to do in terms of our operations. We are a nice size business, but we need to get this absolutely right before we can think about rolling out any further. I’m sure people would love to see a big roll out plan, but that’s not who we are. We want to do what we do well in the state that we are in. Maybe in the next 18-24 months you may see a growth plan.
What’s your staff turnover like?
Our managers are very committed and they want to go on the journey with us. To start with they were very nervous about the acquisition by CH&Co, however they are now very excited about where Apostrophe is going. They are part of the future. There is no way we could take the business forward without them.
What are your top sellers on the menu?
Recently we introduced our bacon muffin. We knew we were missing something traditional from the menu so we introduced it and since then, sales have flown. It added £300 revenue onto each shop each week. Our porridge is our USP, it is homemade on site. It is a unique product that everyone loves. In October last year we sold 3,000 units of porridge.
And what about lunchtime?
Again it is evolving. We realised the menu was too bready, so this winter we are offering a skinny range, skinny soups and broths and will be offering a much more healthier range. Also, in our Westfield and O2 shopping centre sites we are going to have an afternoon range coming in. We are trialling it at the minute and it is doing really well.
Do you have someone focused on food development?
We are just in the process of appointing a food development manager. I need someone who is integral to what we do. We need someone focused on the food, being on trend, doing the research, making it happen, supporting the teams and making us more foodie.
What is the average spend?
Our current average spend is £4.85.