Speaking at Restaurant’s R200 conference last week, Campbell revealed that the group had secured a site in Dubai that was all designed with building work about to begin.
He said that the project had already been delayed a fair bit and was looking at an opening around July or August, but with the ongoing Iran-US war causing instability across the Middle East he suggested it may be pushed back further and move towards an October launch.
“Hopefully everything will have sorted themselves out by then, but the situation is hugely unpredictable,” he said. “We just have to keep cracking on.”
The restaurant will operate under franchise, though Campbell and Bowlby will be closely involved.
“We don’t just want to be ‘here’s our brand, see you later’. We’re proud of what we’ve created.”
As well as the site in Dubai, Campbell added that Kricket was also exploring opportunities to open in Abu Dhabi. “We want success, it’s not just a payday. We want to do a number of sites across the GCC.”
As well as the Gulf states, Kricket is also looking at a potential move across the pond into the US market. The group held an exclusive pop-up dinner across two nights in October at Mexico-city inspired restaurant Comal in New York City’s Lower East Side.
Campbell said the dinners were ‘really successful’ and the group is now in talks to facilitate a permanent move Stateside that’s focused on structure, funding, and finding operating partners. While New York would be a preferred entry point for Campbell, he noted that there is also a push amongst operators going to the US to initially look at the red states.
“My heart would like to go straight to New York, but my head says maybe somewhere different,” he said. “Definitely we’d like put Kricket in the US. While there is more Indian food there now, it’s still massively under indexed and that’s why more brands are going there. And we want to be a part of that.”
Growth closer to home
Kricket is preparing to open its third London restaurant in as many years in Covent Garden, which will bring its total tally to five across the capital. Noting challenges with the group’s restaurant in Brixton, Campbell said that any further UK growth would also likely be concentrated in central London.
“We do have Brixton, but that’s very difficult right now, which makes me nervous about doing other neighbourhood formats. “I feel more secure in central London.”
He added that expansion in the capital had to come organically. “I’m putting a lot of thought into what we’re doing, building that brand equity and consistency. I want to open more restaurants, but you have to be careful. Site selection is everything. You’re only two streets away from disaster.”
Additionally, Campbell is keen to further grow the group’s offshoot bar concept, Soma, which he says requires a third of the operation and CAPEX and takes twice the profit of the restaurants.
Currently Soma has sites attached to Kricket restaurants in Soho and Canary Wharf, but Campbell believes the concept could be spun out to standalone locations both in London and Europe.
“I’d love to see a Soma in Paris and Amsterdam, it’s just trying to decide where to allocate the resource, time and energy.”
