Incipio Group lauds landlords’ ‘flexibility and support’ over pandemic rent

10-Sep-2020 - Last updated on 10-Sep-2020 at 08:39 GMT

'Fight mode': 'there has been a lot of negative press recently regarding how landlords have treated their tenants during the pandemic,' Incipio's Ed Davenport said

London-based bar operator Incipio Group has publicly praised the bespoke rent support it received from commercial landlords while the business was in ‘fight mode’.

Incipio, which operates six venues in the capital; Pergola Paddington, Pergola Olympia, Lost in Brixton, Bloom, the Prince and W12 Studios, said the flexibility and support of its landlords during the enforced closure period meant the Group could now look to the future and plan for expansion next year.

Before the Prime Minister called last orders in March, Incipio was on track to turnover more than £20m in 2020.

The Group revealed that it was able to secure a variety of pandemic rental agreements including rent-free periods during lockdown followed by turnover and capacity-based rents now trading has resumed from landlords including British Land, Stanhope Capital, Delancey and Hondo Enterprises.

Fight mode

Since reopening on 4 July, in the region of 105,000 guests have visited Incipio’s sites, despite operating at 52% capacity, with post-lockdown turnover running at almost 70% year-on-year.

What’s more, the operator witnessed a 40% sales boost in sales from Monday to Wednesday off the back of the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme during August.

Ed Devenport, who was appointed CEO of Incipio Group in May 2020, has cited a strong relationship with its landlords as a key factor in the business’ robust recovery from 105 days behind closed doors.

“During the most challenging months the industry has probably ever seen, like many others, we were in fight mode in order to protect the business, our staff and our future.

“One of the first things we did was proactively turn to each of our landlords to discuss solutions to safeguard the venues and our teams.

“There has been a lot of negative press recently regarding how landlords have treated their tenants during the pandemic. From our perspective, we have always worked incredibly hard on our relationships with our landlords and their approach towards us has been exceptional.

“They have given us support that has underpinned our ability to retain the majority of our team, reopen and bounce back strongly.”