“Don't mention F-word on road to global success”

Don't mention F-word on road to global success

Posted: 12 Nov 2010 02:50 PM PST

22:50, Friday 12 November 2010

Someone had better say something nice about Gordon Ramsay, again the subject of gossip columns following his most public fall-out with father-in-law and now ex-business manager Chris Hutcheson. And it might as well be Richard Caring, lord of the high-end London restaurant scene.

"Mr Ramsay's going through an unfortunate press time at the moment," says Mr Caring. "Everybody's happy, sort of, trying to cut his legs off. I think he's been fantastic for the industry."

But that's as good as the chef-proprietor will get from Mr Caring. The schism in the Ramsay clan is down to the troubled international expansion of his brands. And since Mr Caring is up and running with his own global rollout of restaurants such as The Ivy, Rivington Grill, Scott's, Le Caprice and Cecconi's, the Soho House group of hotel-cum-clubs and private member clubs Annabel's and Harry's Bar, the Ramsay crisis helps him draw comparisons.

"You can't just think, 'well, I'm successful in the UK'," Mr Caring says from the Euston offices where he presides over his empire. "A few people have done that, rushed off to different places and opened, and I think you'll find they've all come back with bloody noses. You've really got to know what you're doing in any foreign country."

The Caring version of world domination this week added a new outpost. The Ivy is to open in Dubai in April, part of a rollout of Caring brands in the Middle East with the Jumeirah Group.

The US has already got a Soho House in New York, Hollywood and Miami, Le Caprice in New York and Cecconi's in Hollywood. Harry's Bar, Le Caprice and Annabel's are signed up for Beirut. There are negotiations for a J Sheekey restaurant in New York and for a Soho House in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Mumbai might take a Soho House and a Cecconi's. "We're looking at Brazil," he says. The owner of Wentworth golf course in Surrey, he also wants to take that brand to Kazakhstan and India.

But not China. "It is very much the nouveau riche in China . . . I don't want to slag the Chinese off, but you've got to have a quality. For what they consider to be a very upmarket restaurant, the Chinese will come in shorts and a pair of slippers. You feel a bit overdressed when you're wearing a shirt and tie, let's put it that way. They're not ready."

If the early expansion moves brought criticism of brand dilution, the successes, particularly in LA, have silenced some voices, he believes.

The recession did nothing to damp growth plans - "we didn't notice it". He predicts Soho House will this year make at least £28m in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, the restaurants under Caprice Holdings about £26m, the Birley Group of private members clubs £11m and his Côte restaurant chain, the "value brand" he launched 18 months ago, £16m.

He estimates the number of customers across his empire at 80,000-100,000, although the recession has pared back some of the new wealth that used to frequent his establishments.

"We don't see the sort of outstanding individuals we did," he says. "I don't know how many Abramoviches there are left. There used to be a dozen Russians that would spend huge sums of money. That doesn't happen any more - maybe one or two."

Expansion in the UK - which in the Caring world view means London - will be built around Côte, which he says will grow from 19 outlets to 60 within two years.

Elsewhere, opportunities are limited, partly due to planning restrictions. "I'm not interested in taking on any new sites that don't have existing restaurant/club/hotel positioning before we start because it's just too long a process," he says. Even so, he reveals he has five significant sites "on the go" in London.

He got close to buying the Berners Hotel in Fitzrovia, snapped up this week by Marriott. He sold his 12 per cent stake in Carluccio's, after the Dubai-based Landmark Group last month made its £90m offer, having several times weighed up an outright bid.

"We did take a deep breath and say, 'should we counter-bid?' But the boss of Landmark is a guy I know quite well. I didn't want to upset him . . . We believe we're in a better position to grow the Côte business."

One place he will not be going is France, one of the places Gordon Ramsay ran into difficulty. "What do we need that aggravation for?" he says.

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