Mark Derry, the entrepreneur behind Loch Fyne, has described Brasserie Blanc’s entry into the pub market as a 'watershed moment' for the company.
The company, which has named it's pub arm as the White Brasserie Company, opens its first pubs the Queen’s Head in Weybridge, Surrey, this week and the King’s Head in Teddington, Middlesex, next month.
Derry told The Times that he hoped the concepts could be turned into a national chain, as first reported by BigHospitality in June.
“This is all about taking the Brasserie Blanc food and experience and putting it into pubs,” he said.
The two sites will be run on a trial basis, before being rolled out to provinvial locations across the UK.
As well as expanding its new concept, the group hopes to have 20 Brasserie Blanc outlets up and running by 2015.
Investors supply £4m of funding
Brasserie Bar Company raised around £4m earlier this year from investors in order to develop the new concept and grow its existing business.
Derry, who built Loch Fyne Restaurants into a chain before selling out to Greene King in 2007 for £68m, said he expected average spend per head to be about £5 cheaper at £20 to £22.
He is budgeting average weekly sales of about £25,000 per pub, compared to £35,000 per Brasserie Blanc.
Derry added that while food would account for 70 per cent of sales, half the premises would be kept as a pub “'to attract local bar trade".
Martyn Leek is news editor of BigHospitality's sister title M&C Report.