Mr. Williams: Groupe Chez Gerard plc was founded in the 1980's and went public on the London Stock Exchange in 1994. The group currently operates restaurants in London under three brand names: Chez Gerard, Livebait, and Richoux. It also operates five signature restaurants: two Bertorelli's, Scotts, Soho Soho, and Brasserie St. Quentin. I arrived as CEO in August 1999 and earlier this month we unveiled our strategy to become the UK's leading premium branded restaurant operator.
TWST: What is the size and growth potential of the sectors in which your
restaurants are positioned?
Mr. Williams: First of all, the eating-out market in the UK is one of
strong growth and is valued at some GBP 23 billion. Within that, full
service restaurants - and that's the sector that we're in - account for
some 27% of the overall market. Analysis of the market -from Mintel -
estimate that there are some 20,000 full service restaurants in the UK,
but interestingly only 10% of those have a turnover of more than half a
million sterling pounds a year and that's actually the fastest-growing
sector in the market. All of our restaurants are in that 10%. We're
obviously very much at the moment a London-based company, albeit that
we'll now be moving outside London. The London market itself, which is
highly developed, represents 50% of the 10%. The other factor in terms
of the market as a whole is that only 25% of all the restaurants in the
UK are branded, but that branded segment is growing rapidly at the
expense of the independents. The leisure pound, i.e. the discretionary
spend for consumers in the UK has grown some 20% this decade and it's
forecast to increase by a further 10% over the next 4 years. This info
comes from the Office of National Statistics, they maintain that
spending on eating-out is currently one of the fastest-growing elements
of household expenditure; again, it's forecast to continue to increase.
Within that, expenditure on restaurant meals is up 28% over the three
years to 98, the last set of statistics available. And without pushing
the point, currently some 30 pence in the pound in the UK household food
spend is consumed outside the home, whereas in the US it's 50 cents in
the dollar; and although there are differences, between the US and the
UK market, there's quite a way for the UK to go from 30% of spend to 50%
of spend in the States.
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