Geronimo's genesis

Geronimo Inns

Under the umbrella of holding company Malthaven

228 Battersea Bridge Road, London SW11 3AA

Tel: 0171-801 0494

Turnover: £2.5m

Average food spend: £10-£12 per head

Pubs: the Duke of Cambridge, Battersea; the Queens, Primrose Hill; the Crown, Chelsea; the Coat and Badge, Putney

"I HATE pubs - I always have done," says Rupert Clevely adamantly. "I never go to pubs - I'm not a pub person. I don't like beer and have never been a lad's lad."

Joanna Clevely, Rupert's partner in both marriage and business, is equally dismissive. Her pet hates are smoke, jukeboxes, fruit machines and beer.

It seems an odd confession from people whose lives are dedicated to running pubs, but this isn't a normal couple, and they do not run normal pubs. The Clevelys are determined to resurrect the traditional British pub and modernise it. "I always felt that the London City-type pub was desperately in need of something more exciting," declares Rupert.

The couple moved into the pub business in February 1995, when they took on a Young's pub, the Chelsea Ram, in Chelsea, south-west London, under the company name of Malthaven, whose ownership is divided between Rupert and his wife.

"The idea was that our friend and business partner Nick Elliot would run the business, I would invest, and my wife would do the decor," says Rupert.

The Ram went when the original partnership with Elliot was dissolved, but other pubs soon joined the fold. Geronimo Inns, operating under the umbrella of the holding company Malthaven, runs four pubs in London, including two of the scarce Michelin guide-rated pubs in the UK, the Duke of Cambridge in Battersea and the Queens in Primrose Hill.

Company flagship

The Duke of Cambridge won London's Evening Standard 1998 Pub of the Year Award, and is the company's flagship. Its menu features dishes such as tian of aubergine and mozzarella (£5.45) and fillet of sole (£9.95), and plays host to a mixture of local residents and the young Battersea crowd. The ground floor of the Queens is a traditional English public house, and its restaurant, which is on the first floor, offers alfresco dining.

The company's first venture in Chelsea, the Crown, underwent substantial refurbishment, and opened in September 1998 (Caterer, 3 December 1998, page 66). A further site in Putney, the Coat and Badge, was given a total facelift and reopened in late October 1998.

The pair are renovating a fifth pub, the Builders Arms, in Chelsea which is due to be operational in April. Rupert announces that he is happy to "consolidate" and not expand further this year, although he aims to acquire 20 pubs in London over the next 20 years.

Turnover for the entire company reached £2.5m for the year ending 30 June 1998 - a 6% increase on the previous year. Rupert is not prepared to disclose profits, referring obliquely to the opening of three new sites in 1998-99 as "a drain on resources", although he predicts that the company will make a small profit in 1999.

Rupert decided to give up his position as international marketing director with Veuve Clicquot when his third daughter was born. He still runs Clicquot's UK operation, but now has sufficient time to join Joanna in running the growing pub portfolio.

Travels in Australia gave the Clevelys the idea that there was a market for a "local" where people could meet in a relaxed and casual atmosphere to drink and eat well.

"I was really inspired by the pubs out in Australia in the early 1990s - they were light years ahead of what was happening here. It wasn't until Conran charged in that the UK industry started to come alive; but developments have mainly been in restaurants or bars, not pubs," says Rupert.

He believes that "the straight British pub is an institution" - a concept he cherishes and wants to update, not undo. In his opinion, a key development has been to make the pubs attractive to women. "We want people to feel very comfortable here in an environment that is relaxed and female-friendly. There are a lot more females with disposable incomes who want to go to pubs nowadays," he says.

Rupert looks for locations that have lunch and dinner opportunities, preferably "an extremely grotty pub but with aesthetically elegant features, with a bit of character you can add to" - though he admits he relies on gut feeling to assess the potential of a site.

Although the pubs have developed a reputation for their food, Rupert tries to draw customers in to drink as well as eat. "Without food we wouldn't get people in - the food gives the pub its reputation and image. But they also come in just for a drink," he says.

The average food spend per head is £10-£12; drinks sales vary. About 65% of turnover is wet-led. Covers at each establishment average 30 for lunch and 40 for dinner.

Menus include dishes that would normally grace restaurant tables, such as lobster ravioli (£5.95) and warm smoked salmon and goat's cheese tart (£4.75), as well as pub favourites such as chicken and leek pie (£8.45). The menus change every month, and there are different specials every day. Rupert enthuses about taking the pubs more upmarket, starting by introducing paper tablecloths in the restaurant area of the Crown.

The style of the food can be best described as modern European. Rupert dismisses the term modern British as "rather pompous". He is proud that he is not trained in the catering business, and is unfamiliar with some of its vocabulary. "All I know is that I want to serve good food at reasonable prices," he shrugs.

Each pub has a different menu and a distinctive feel, in keeping with its environment, but with no real branding. "The late 1990s will be about branded goods, but not about branded places to eat and drink. I come from a branded-business background, and see the future in luxury," says Rupert. "The average punter wants to feel pampered as an individual in an individualistic surrounding."

Members of the group, however, share certain features, such as the shirts worn by staff and the similar menus.

Joanna is in charge of the decor and of creating a distinctive feel. Rupert admits they could have "gone out and taken a great designer", but felt it was important to establish a style in-house. Eventually the couple plan to hire a designer to work alongside them.

Rupert's ambitions don't stop there. Next on the list is exporting their style of British pub to the USA. They also want to buy a motorway service station and "really make the food there great". n