Brasserie Blanc adapts offer for pubs
A well-known restaurant chain founded by French chef Raymond Blanc is adapting its offer for the pub sector under the tagline White Brasserie Company.
Two pubs have been leased from Enterprise Inns for the expansion into the sector.
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 opens the Queen's Head in Weybridge in Surrey this week and the King's Head in Teddington, Middlesex next month. It is hoped that the concepts could be turned into a national chain.
Derry said: "This is all about taking the Brasserie Blanc food and experience and putting it into pubs."
As well as expanding its new concept, the group hopes to have 20 Brasserie Blanc outlets up and running by 2015.
A total of around £4m was raised 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, told The Times 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.
The two pubs, which will retain their pub names, were both leased from Enterprise Inns, will cost about £700,000 apiece to open under the new format, complete with barbecue-style charcoal grill.
Derry added that while food would account for 70% of sales, half the premises would be kept as a pub "to attract local bar trade".
