The Big Interview: Jillian MacLean, Drake & Morgan

“The great thing about a recession is that people go out more. And they buy more lipstick. It’s for the same reason. They want to feel good about themselves.”

So after more than a quarter-century working for pubcos, in 2008, in the depths of an economic crisis, she set up her own company. And it’s been worth the wait.

Last month Drake & Morgan reported annual turnover up 44% to £16.4m, with profits hurdling the million-mark at £1.27m. That means each of the five venues is taking an average of £3m-plus each.

More than that, as everyone agrees, MacLean’s venture has brought something fresh and exciting to the sector. No less than you’d expect, perhaps, from a woman whose career has touched some of the most successful pub brands in the business.

She grew up in the picturesque Scottish resort of Largs and was soon put to work in her parents’ hotel. She had a place lined up at Glasgow University, but a family crisis meant she had to keep working.

She got a job at a local hotel that was owned by Tennent Caledonian Breweries and stayed with Bass, the parent company, for more than two decades, finishing up as operations director for Mitchells & Butlers, as the pubs arm was to become.

During that time she developed brand concepts such as Castle, Ember Inns and Nicholson’s.

Finally leaving M&B, after a stint at Spirit Group, she ran operations at Novus Leisure. Then came the credit crunch.

“I think everyone has the dream of running their own company and I was no different,” she says. “I always said I’d be my own boss by the time I was 30. And then by the time I was 40. People started to think I was never going to do it.

“But I saw my chance with the recession. Did you know the Chinese word for ‘crisis’ also means ‘opportunity’?

“I also thought that gastropubs had become overpriced, and that a lot of brands hadn’t moved their offer on. There was a chance to create a new proposition, a casual, accessible bar-restaurant with good design at a lower price-point.”

'Innovation Trips'​

Her financial backers, the Imbiba Partnership, agreed, and MacLean set off on the first of the many ‘innovation trips’ that have inspired each of her new openings.

In San Francisco and New York she found operators were using big spaces to create a fresh experience in every respect — design, food, drink and service.

Back in London she researched a brand proposition and surveyed potential customers before opening the Refinery in Southwark. Drake & Morgan was born — an open, informal and welcoming environment where, MacLean says, “people can feel they’ve got a lot of space”.

At the Folly by the Monument, where we meet, the former bank building has been hollowed out to create, at some 13,500 square feet, the largest bar-restaurant in the Square Mile. It incorporates not only dining and drinking areas, but a café that converts into a cocktail bar at night, private dining and a pop-up shop where a chocolatier is about to take over from a fashion house.

Opening at 7am, it trades through a day divided into four segments: breakfast, lunch, after-work and evening events.

As well as listening to what its own customers want through focus groups and surveys, this concept of a differentiated offer comes from watching trends among retailers.

“We track Selfridges, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and department stores all over the world,” says MacLean. “And what we’ve learned from that is that people want different experiences.

“You have to differentiate in a space with bespoke events and experiences. We’ve got a big project on that now. The product needs to be fantastic, but interesting things need to be happening too.

“At the moment people want retro, kitsch. Flambés are back!”

Late morning at the Folly there are no flambés, but the relaxed mood of the modern coffee bar, with people meeting up and browsing their laptops.

“The movement around coffee has been fantastic,” she says. “It’s a lovely offer, but it can feel cramped with all those buggies.”

In contrast you could drive a small bus between the tables at the Folly. And MacLean’s pub-industry background is evident, too, in its undemanding atmosphere, the sense that people can find their own space and do what they want to do, undisturbed.

What Drake & Morgan adds to this is a heightened level of customer service. When someone arrives they are greeted in seconds and assessed. Do they want a meal? Are they meeting friends? Do they just want to chill out?

Always with one eye on the door, MacLean suddenly makes a move mid-interview and is half out of her chair when she spots a customer looking a little lost.

“You can never relax when it’s your own place,” she apologises.

Drake & Morgan has the design, it has the food and drink and it has an “atmosphere management” approach learned from Novus.

It has even formalised into an initiative called ‘Little Touches’, the essential attention to detail that subconsciously influences a customer’s experience, “to make us think about what the eye is looking at, what people are touching”, explains MacLean.

People first​

But what exercises her most is developing the staff who are charged with delivering the kind of service she seeks.

“I feel I can never say enough about the people,” she worries. “It’s really important how you treat people and it’s in the Drake & Morgan DNA that we empower the team to be creative and innovative. We like people to embrace their talents.

“There are good benefits, we feed people every day with a nutritious meal, we treat them well.

“We would never have spent so much on training and development 20 years ago,” she goes on. “We spend about £200,000 a year, on sending people on innovation trips, on daily briefings, to a cocktail school, Wine & Spirit Education Trust courses. We’re launching an academy next year. Everyone’s really passionate about it.

“The image of hospitality as a career is improving, I think. It’s a growth sector, there are a lot of exciting new operators and there has been progress in professionalising the sector. It’s being taken more seriously, and I’d like to think we are one of the game-changers there.”

Recruiting and developing staff will become more of a challenge as Drake & Morgan continues its expansion, she admits. Two more sites are set to open next year. One called the Happenstance and one that’s still to be named.

“There’s still a lot of opportunity in the City,” says MacLean. “But our expansion has been slower than we expected.

“We were aiming for 10 sites in our first five years and we’ve got only five after four. But we’ve had to be quite selective. We couldn’t afford some of the premiums that were being asked for on leases.”

The business has embarked on a strategic review, and there is speculation it will result in Drake & Morgan being sold. MacLean will say only that it is “looking at options for the business”. And what would be the point of a review if you already know the result?

For MacLean’s part, she’s focused on getting ready for a bumper Christmas and continuing to innovate in a business that, like the Francis Drake and Captain Morgan its named after, is showing the way for the rest.