Why was now the right time to name the group in this way?
Abhinav Malde: The pandemic led us to change the way we think. Before that it was a lot of us doing the R&D work, driving the innovation and development. Covid was a chance to take a step back and reflect and as we begun to emerge from lockdown we expanded our senior team. This included two development chefs to work across the different restaurants. That’s when it started to change.
Frank Yeung: At the same time, the investment cycle had begun to slow. Initially we had a vision of growing to a certain size, reaching the right EBITDA level and then selling. But we were hearing more and more that there was less appetite for investment, and the amount of work we had to do to get the business to the point where it might be viable for that sort of funding didn’t excite us. It wasn’t what we get out of bed for, and so we looked more at what inspired and interested us, which isn’t tied exclusively to Taiwanese cuisine.
What does the name 6 of 1 represent?
FY: It means we’ll be taken a bit more seriously. We couldn’t be Mr Bao Group. We didn’t want ‘bao’ to be in the name as the idea is broadening the types of cuisine and concepts we explore. So having a more equitable name made sense.
AM: It’s really helpful as it allows us to define the business internally and externally. Specifically, when it comes to talking to landlords and looking at future sites. We don’t want to be known as just operating bao restaurants.
FY: We might be missing out on really good staff too. Chefs might want to come and work for us, but not cook in a bao restaurant. This gives us the scope to explore other ideas.
Does this mean no more bao restaurants?
FY: Not at all. There’s still plenty of white space for more bao restaurants, if we were to do it then it would be under the Master Bao brand, which we think has more potential for scale. But there’s nothing sadder than your favourite restaurant growing into a larger group and becoming your least favourite. We don’t want to be that. We want to be proud of every restaurant we run.
So, what are your future plans?
FY: We’re developing different ideas. We’ve done plans for an Indian restaurant before, Hong Kong; Japanese. Mexico is another avenue we’d like to explore. We’re not ruling anything out, and that goes for location too. We’re focused on London right now, but we would be open to exploring other ventures outside the capital in the future.
How big could the group get?
AM: For us it’s about finding sites that we think are good. The idea would be to find a site and then work out what sort of concept would work best in that space.
FY: In terms of size, we’d like to open one or two more in the next couple of years. But only if it’s the right site and we can make the right concept fit.
There’s nothing sadder than your favourite restaurant growing into a larger group and becoming your least favourite
Frank Yeung, 6 of 1 group co-founder
You recently launched your first bar concept, Good Measure, how has that been?
AM: We’re led by our staff, and they wanted to do it. It was the manager of our Daddy Bao restaurant in Tooting who came up with the idea. She wanted to repurpose the restaurant’s basement space as a bar. She’s passionate about drinks, as is her team, and they’ve helped build and develop the concept.
FY: We’d thought about doing a bar before, but it was more of a running joke between us. It’s one, big 18-seater table and is an intimate space that gives the feeling of coming into someone’s living room. We know the limits. We’re not trying to get a good Tuesday lunchtime rush out of it. We’ve taken an organic approach and not overextended ourselves. It’s only open on Friday and Saturday nights at the moment. Now it’s about exploring how we can let it build and grow.
What are the challenges you’re facing as a group right now?
FY: The Budget wasn’t great. It feels really bad for our industry. We’re already a severely high-taxed sector, so it’s frustrating, and I suspect there will be some casualties as a result.
AM: It changes our approach. We’ve already talked about price changes, and then there’s the issue of labour. Post Covid there’s a lot of businesses are struggling to maintain the same level of staff retention. A common thing we hear from new starters is they often come from places that were understaffed before.
FY: We see that as an opportunity, though. Our approach is different, we make sure our restaurants have a larger focus on headcount. We haven’t reduced staff numbers, and so customer reviews and responses remain positive. We make it all about the hospitality and training. But the Government is making it very hard.
AM: The stress for us is thinking about what if we do have to compromise. We’ve gone through a lot in the last few years and weathered it well. We make sure our restaurants are nice places to work and that the pay is good, the problem we face is these tax rises could hold us back as we look to expand.