Overall ranking: 28 (51)
Restaurateurs ranking: 9 (16)

Mark Derry - Snapshot
Mark Derry is the chief executive of Premium Casual Dining which owns the rapidly-expanding and profitable Loch Fyne chain of seafood restaurants.

Derry is also an executive director of Blanc Brasseries Holdings which owns the five-strong Le Petit Blanc chain of brasseries originally created by Raymond Blanc in partnership with Orient-Express Hotels.

Mark Derry - Career guide
Mark Derry was born in 1960 and started his working life as an agricultural fencer. He moved into the catering world in 1983 when he became marketing director of the New Ventures Group at Whitbread. Here he helped develop the Henry’s Café Bars, Hanrahans and Palio restaurant brands before moving to the role of marketing director of Whitbread’s fast-growing TGI Friday’s restaurant chain in 1988.

In 1994, Derry joined homeware distribution company Glenchewton, where he led its acquisition of Country Style Inns, a chain of 16 food-led pubs based around the sous-vide (or boil-in-a-bag) restaurant style.

After Country Style Inns was sold for a profit to the Old English Pub Company in 1997, Derry teamed up with Ian Glyn, who had been part of the management team at Country Style Inns, to launch Loch Fyne Restaurants as a sister company to Scottish oyster, mussels and salmon supplier Loch Fyne Oysters. In 2003, the restaurant company bought Le Petit Blanc from its administrators and Derry changed his role from managing director to chief executive.

In November 2005, a refinancing deal saw private equity firm Hutton Collins buy Loch Fyne for £30m and set up Premium Casual Dining as the holding company under Derry. In March 2006, Derry led a £3m management buy-out of Le Petit Blanc to create the independent Blanc Brasseries.

Mark Derry - What we think
Mark Derry has done more than almost anybody to establish upmarket fish restaurants in the UK casual dining market – a feat that won him the Catey Group Restaurateur of the Year in 2005.

In 1997 Derry perceived a gap in the market for a good seafood restaurant chain and joined forces with Loch Fyne Oysters – thus ensuring a secure supply line. The supplier had opened its first restaurant in 1987 at its loch-side base in Cairndow, Strathclyde, and added branches in Nottingham and Peterborough in 1991 and 1992, but was now seeking a partner to develop the concept.

Loch Fyne Restaurants took over the Nottingham and Peterborough restaurants and added a third in Cambridge in 1999. Since then, the group has swelled to 26 sites (with 11 opened in 2001 alone) and another five in the pipeline. It is now turning over more than £30m and employs in excess of 1,000 staff.

This phenomenal rate of growth has made Loch Fyne a regular in the Sunday Times Fast Track list of Britain’s 100 fastest-growing businesses –  in 2003 it was rated the  fastest-growing restaurant business in the UK and the 10th fastest-growing company across all sectors. While the rate of openings has calmed down, it still came 59th in the list of Europe’s 500 fastest-growing businesses in 2005.

Loch Fyne was set up under an Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and, in early 2006, it won the EIS Association’s Best Exit of an EIS Investment award – its original shareholders claimed up to four times their original investment.
 
The healthy-eating seafood concept proved a winner in the midst of the BSE scare, but Derry believes Loch Fyne has a more timeless appeal/ “The overall offering is appealing to customers; we have a fantastically good product and an appealing environment,” he told Caterer in 2004. “It’s not fashionable but it’s comfortable, and very good value for money. You can eat here for £10.”

Loch Fyne also has impeccable green credentials – it was the first company to remove the five most at risk fish species from its menus.

Longer-term, Derry is looking at a potential 100 Loch Fynes and around 20 Le Petit Blancs across the UK. He is also considering branching out into airport concessions and anticipates further opportunities through international licensing and outside catering.

Mark Derry – Further information

Loch Fyne Restaurants official websites