Founders Mayur Patel and Marko Husak already operate restaurants in Leeds and Manchester and expect to sign a lease on a Liverpool site before the end of the year.
The Liverpool site will be of a comparable size to Bundobust’s Manchester unit and is described as another “oddball” property.
“This is the third time we’ve ended up taking the first site we’ve seen in a city. We’re very specific,” says Patel. “We want sites that other restaurant brands probably would not be interested in. We don’t need the really glamorous sites with the huge premiums and we’re happy to do them up.”
“We had to put in service to the Leeds site and Manchester was a state,” says Husak. “We don’t mind making the investment in getting it up to scratch because we can use the money we have saved on premiums and rents.”
The pair have already secured a large production kitchen on the outskirts of Leeds which will also house a brewery. The kit is expected to be able to produce 32 kegs of beer at a time. Bundobust will continue to support other breweries but making beer in-house has the potential to be profitable.
The pair estimate it could add £100,000 to the bottom line at each site. Some of the beer will be produced by it existing team – it already employs some talented home brewers – but it will also collaborate with other brewers. The aim is to eventually supply other restaurants, bars and shops with Bundobust-branded beers.
The hotly tipped bar restaurant group plans to open two more restaurants in the north of England in 2019 and has started informally exploring investment opportunities.
“The bank has been good to us thus far and our current finance model is fine for doing one a year,” says Husak. “But we need to move faster now. We’ve had some talks with potential investors. The main thing for us is finding someone we get on with and who has experience of rolling out stuff we like and – crucially – keeping it good. We don’t want this brand to lose its soul along the way.”
A full interview with the founders of Bundobust first appeared in the December issue of Restaurant magazine and can also be read here. To subscribe to Restaurant please email customer.service@wrbm.com