Living Ventures go for gold with The Alchemist
LEISURE group Living Ventures is gearing up for the launch of its 20th restaurant- The Alchemist – which opens this week after a £500,000 investment.
Jeremy Roberts, who founded Knutsford-based Living Ventures with Tim Bacon, said The Alchemist, in Manchester’s Spinningfields business district, is as exciting as the original Living Room, which opened in 1999.
“It’s a fresh concept, but it’s like the original Living Room model – a cocktail bar with a full service restaurant. It’s an area we believe we know well, and because of where it is, we’ve created something very special with the cocktail bar.”
Aside from this Thursday’s launch it has been a busy month for Living Ventures, having bought five sites from Lancashire restaurateur Paul Heathcote, taking the group’s portfolio to 19 restaurants and two late-night bars.
The deal for three Olive Press sites in Cheadle Hulme, Liverpool and Manchester city centre as well as its Spanish restaurant Grado on New York St in Manchester and the London Road restaurant in Alderley Edge, has given Living Ventures plenty to get its teeth in to.
Mr Roberts, who expects the Heathcote deal to take Living Ventures’ annual turnover to around £30m next year, says the Grado brand is one that could be expanded in future.
“The new sites fit well with our existing locations, but we’re still assessing how. Grado looks quite exciting and could have legs,” he added.
The three Olive Press sites are all likely to be converted to a new format as Paul Heathcote retained the intellectual property for the brand name.
Asked about the trading environment Mr Roberts said: “We’ve had a good couple of years despite all the difficulties in the market place. We have stuck to our principles in maintaining expenditure on training, which is something very dear to our ethos and culture.
“We believe it is the key to trading through a difficult period as it hopefully ensures we give our customer a great experience.We’ve alos avoided deep discounting too.
“Bookings are good – people have tended to leave it a bit later, but I think Christmas will be strong – it’s the one time a year that people don’t skimp on going out.”
