Founder Andre Blais said the new investment would ‘power our next major milestone’ – the opening of its second site, with a third also in negotiations.
Blais – who also founded barbecue restaurant group Bodean’s and was instrumental in the development of Belgo – told Restaurant’s sister title MCA the business had managed to secure the investment over a 12-week period, with 50% of the funds coming from its initial investors.
He said his experience in understanding how to develop and grow concepts and the fact that initial investors saw the business reach breakeven in year one - since its opening in April 2024 - meant that its existing investors were “reassured enough that they wanted to invest more”.
Gerry’s Hot Subs currently trades from a single site in London’s Exmouth Market, which opened in 2024 after Blais crowdfunded to raise finance. The site achieved £1m in revenue in its first year.
The business is now close to completing on a site in a busy commuter train station in central London for its second site, which Blais is hoping to open before Christmas.
While Blais is generally looking to acquire small footprint sites, of below 1,000sq ft, he said the second prospective venue had such good terms that he has flexed the format to suit the location.
“It may have a bit more similarity to what I did in Bodean’s with the environment – with lots of beers on top,“ he said of the new site. ”It’s got a grab-and-go lunchtime, express offering but in the evening it’s welcoming to students and other people in the local area.”
The business should have enough funds from the raise to do a smaller format site. It is also hoping to open a central kitchen within one of its next locations in order to shift production of its meats like turkey pastrami and pulled pork in-house.
In addition, Blais is planning to introduce a breakfast/brunchtime offering in order to widen the business’ operating hours. “We’re trying to be the gourmet burger of sandwiches, and we’re trying to come out of the fad where sandwiches are eaten until 5pm and then these high expense rental units are not utilised,” he said.
“That’s not what we’re looking to do. We’re looking to be trading as many hours as possible.”
While he believes the capital is likely to see many more premium sandwich concepts hit the market, he said that if Gerry’s Hot Subs can tap into some of the growing £6bn sandwich market in the UK, “then those are some big figures”.