KERB Social Club feels like a very new direction for the group. What’s behind the idea?
There are several things that have driven us to create KERB Social Club. First and foremost, though, it’s an opportunity for us to create a product we think we can expand across the UK. Seven Dials Market [Kerb’s Covent Garden food hall] is a bit of a unicorn from my perspective. It’s an iconic building and has high foot fall, but it’s very expensive to build and run something on that size and scale. This gives us the opportunity to roll out something nationwide that we really believe in. It’s a slightly differentiated from what we’ve done before but still gives a platform for growth to our street food vendors and creates a hospitality product that we think is missing in the UK market.
Does this mean KERB is no longer planning to open food halls?
We still want to do more of them. We’ve just opened our second company-owned food hall in Berlin. Will we do more in the UK? Yes, probably at some stage. Where will they be? We’re not sure yet. We’d probably open another in London before we go outside of the capital.
Tell us about the KERB Social Club concept
We have a couple of sites in the US and when you go there you see a lot of sports bars done very well and they’re often more accessible than they are over here. And we thought there was a gap in the market to create some of that in London – a space with a sports bar vibe that’s accessible to families and group of friends while also embracing our street food vendors. Fundamentally it’s about innovating in the space. There’s a lot of noise about cost pressures, National Insurance increases and headwinds in the sector at the moment. In order to succeed in hospitality, you have to give people a reason to go out. KERB Social Club is a UK twist on the US sports bar concept. We’re going to be having a programme of film and TV being shown alongside the sport, as well as events. For example, we have a strength training and Pilates class taking place this Saturday morning. Sports is only an element of it. Ultimately, we want it to be a concept that brings people together.
How did you choose the traders for the food offering?
Two of the traders [Only Jerkin’ and Oh My Dog] were in the KERB cohort already, and one [Cutie Pies] we brought on board. It’s food that sits nicely with the different demographics we’re targeting. It’s proving to be a brilliant partnership so far. The model is different to, say, Seven Dials Market. Rather than individual units it’s a single kitchen being used simultaneously by the three traders, with a shared pass. Doing it this way limits the back of house and makes much better use of space.
Will future Social Club sites feature different traders?
We haven’t decided on that yet. I really like the traders we’ve brought in and if we were to do another site in London then we would probably use the same ones. But if we took it to Birmingham or somewhere then I think we’d look to work with similar traders from that area. We need to get this site right first before we start really planning for that. It’s a prototype for what we think will be a roll out vehicle.
Would you still call KERB a food hall/food market business?
I wouldn’t call us a food hall business, or even really a food market business. It’s a multifaceted hospitality business. The reality with KERB is we have events, we have street food markets, and we have food halls. What we’re trying to do is facilitate opportunities for street food vendors to go into a lot of different environments. That can include markets, but it can also be events like Wimbledon, Silverstone, or Goodwood. We’re creating lots of different opportunities for street food vendors to grow, and through that we have opportunities to create something quite unique.
Is there still a big appetite for street food in the capital?
Absolutely. We recently opened a new market in White City [KERB’s first-ever West London market] and we’ve been blown away by the reception. People are thankful you’re there as you’re offering something different. The beauty of our model is we work with independent vendors. At KERB Social Club you’ll find the Only Jerkin’ team making Only Jerkin’ dishes. This isn’t something that’s been created by a chef or central company, we’re working with operators to deliver really good, authentic food. And we continue to deliver that. We’re growing our membership. Seven Dials Market is in 30% sales growth. We’ve also just opened Corner Corner, which is driving footfall to that area and has four great street food vendors and a strong bar offering There’s an authenticity to what we offer and we’re continuing to see a real appetite and desire for it.
You mentioned that KERB recently opened a food hall in Berlin. What are the group’s future ambitions internationally?
We’ve just hired Shivani Mawji from Time Out Market as commercial director to help us build out our pipeline. We see a lot opportunities for the flagship Seven Dials model in terms of our international ambitions and making a hire like that is an indicator that we see it as a big growth opportunity. Once we have that stake in the ground in different territories, we can build off that including creating event opportunities, launching street food markets and even having a KERB+ scheme. We’ve done this in San Francisco where we have an impact programme to help disadvantaged people into work, and we want to replicate that in other places. And having an owned and managed site of our own, like in Berlin, really helps us to do that.
