If you don’t know Drake & Morgan very well, then you need to. It is on course to have 25 outlets across the country by the end of the year and is fast becoming one of the most influential and benchmark bar and restaurant groups.
There can’t be too many more ambitious and bullish restaurant and bar groups than Drake & Morgan. At the beginning of 2015 you could list the number of outlets it had on one hand. By the end of 2017 you would need to borrow at least four other hands to keep with an expansion strategy that will see it own 25 different bars and restaurants.
That is mostly down to its move last July to acquire the 10 wine bars and one restaurant that made up the Corney & Barrow bar business, which transformed it overnight in to one of the fastest growing bar operators in the country.
As well as taking on the Corney & Barrow business it also had time last year to widen its reach across the UK by opening another five new outlets. This included The Commission at Heathrow Airport’s T4 and The Refinery in Edinburgh and Manchester and then in London it added two more bars, The Otherist in Old Broad Street and The Pagination in Canary Wharf.
The Refinery in London is one of five new openings in recent months.
Drake & Morgan has certainly come a long way since it first opened its bar in 2008 in south London, the Refinery in Southwark. But then considering the group is named after two of the country’s most famous explorers and buccaneers, Sir Francis Drake and Captain Henry Morgan, it is not surprising the business that has revived their spirits is no shrinking violet.
But perhaps more surprising is the power behind the realms of Drake & Morgan is not a male double act, as the name would suggest, but leading female entrepreneur, Jillian MacLean.
She has certainly brought the business a long way in a relatively short period of time, but MacLean is also a seasoned campaigner in the pub, bar and restaurant world. She was brought up in her own family hotel business in Scotland, before making her own name working in a series of major pubco businesses including Bass, Mitchells & Butlers, where she was operations director, the Spirit Company and Novus Leisure.
It’s hard work just reading about what she and Drake & Morgan are up to, never mind being tasked with finding drinks to put on the new lists cropping up all over the country.
Tough task
As main wine buyer Fleur Gomez says she has to find styles that are going to suit most palates across its 25 outlets
But that’s the task of Fleur Gomez who heads up the wine list side of Drake & Morgan. She says she looks to change lists, where possible, twice a year, in the spring and autumn, to ensure they are fresh, but alsoto keep them in step with the latest harvests from the northern and southern hemispheres.
Her task is helped to some extent by the fact she currently sources a lot of wines for the former Corney & Barrow bars through the remaining wholesale business.
The overall concept of Drake & Morgan is to appeal to a discerning but mainstream consumer base with the outlets designed for all day dining. “So I am mainly looking for main commercial wines to suit that audience,” she says.
Which means a heavy leaning towards crowd pleases such as Argentinian Malbec and New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. “The classic, most requested wines,” as she puts it.
That said there is also room to explore and push drinkers in to more unknown territory which are presented under the Discovery section of the wine list. “This is our way to find new, exciting and interesting wines,” she adds, but always with the intention of them becoming widely bought, and not there just for appearances sake.
It is often, she says, easier said than done. The wines might be out there, but they are not at the prices she needs.“It has been quite difficult to find more unusual wines at a good price.”
Varieties in demand
The varieties and regions that have worked well in recent months have been white wines from regional Spain, and varieties like Verdejo, and what has now become the failsafe Picpoul de Pinet.
The one to keep your eye on, says Gomez, is Roero Arneis. “I hope this can be the next Viognier in the next few years,” she says.
The majority of Drake & Morgan’s list is priced between around £18 to £40 wines. It does have wines going up to around £60 but between £40 to £60 it only has a handful at any one time, says Gomez. “We just don’t have enough customers who want to buy them.”
That means when it comes to buying from wholesalers she is very much focused in the £5 to £12 zone. “But then most will be £6 to £7 and £8 to £10. We are about every day wines.”
“The most difficult part of my job is to find inspiring wine that match our price points.”
Handling costs
Drake and Morgan outlets are carefully designed to cater for all day dining
The increase in supplier prices as a result of the drop in value of sterling has made that even harder and she is not looking forward to another potential duty increase in next month’s Budget. “Not knowing what is going to happen makes it very hard.”
With an increasing number of bars in its portfolio Drake & Morgan has tried to sell more expensive wines in some outlets. But the reality is mainstream wines work better.
Gomez explains: “We did do a fine wine list once, but it did not work. You really need to have a dedicated sommelier on the floor to make that work.”
If she is going to list a more expensive wine then she is more likely to go for an Old World classic rather than look for a niche single vineyard producer from the New World. “If people are willing to pay more than they are more likely to buy a Chateauneuf du Pape.”
It will be interesting to see how the Corney & Barrow bars not operate within the Drake & Morgan estate as many are situated in areas of London, particularly around the City, where there is more disposable income and the chance to list more expensive and ambitious wines. Which is why it makes perfect sense to remain very much under the guise of the C&B buying team.
But now Drake & Morgan as a group looks set fair for the years ahead and with increasing numbers of private equity investors circling the pub operator scene you can bet it will be very much on their radar.
