Gerry Ford

Overall ranking: 64 (62)

Restaurateurs ranking: 18 (20)

Gerry Ford - Snapshot
Gerry Ford is the chairman and chief executive of Caffé Nero, the third largest player in the £1.1b branded coffee bar market after Starbucks and Costa Coffee. Its 260-plus branches give it a 13% share of the sector.

In the year to May 2005, the group made a profit of £5.1m on a £70.1m turnover. For the subsequent half-year it reported a record-breaking 384% jump in profits to £10.9m on turnover up by 32% to £43.3m.

In the year to 31 May 2004, Caffé Nero reported pre-tax profits of £1.7m on sales of £50.5m, representing year-on-year rises of 228% and 28% respectively. Profits and sales soared by 189% and 40% (to £1.89m and £32.8m respectively) in the subsequent half-year.
 
Gerry Ford - Career guide
Ford, who has a PhD from Oxford, worked at Hewlett Packard before spending three years with international venture capital firm Apax Partners, where he helped develop a series of businesses.

He then headed several small and medium-sized companies in the food and consumer goods sector. In 1991, he co-founded Paladin Associates to invest in and manage a stable of food, consumer brand and media businesses.

In 1997, Paladin bought the five Caffé Nero outlets that had been established in London since 1990 by Ian Semp.

Gerry Ford - What we think
Ford is responsible for the general management, strategy, growth and branding at Caffé Nero. His concept of upmarket, authentic Italian cafés selling gourmet coffees and deli products has differentiated Caffé Nero from the American style of its leading rival Starbucks. Consumers have voted Caffé Nero their favourite coffee shop brand for six consecutive years in Allegra’s annual reports on the market, giving it the top marks for coffee quality, atmosphere and service.

The group, which is expanding at a rate of four openings a month, was named the 20th fastest-growing company in Europe in the 2004 Europe’s 500 listing and it is forecast to reach 400 or 500 branches within the next five years.

Caffé Nero had 13 London branches by the end of 1999, when it started to venture outside the capital. By March 2001, when it floated on the London Stock Market at 50p a share, it had 58 stores.

Its expansion was boosted by the purchase of 26 Aroma coffee bars from McDonald’s in 2002, when it was also suspected of plans to buy the ailing Coffee Republic after building up a 10% stake. It didn’t – but it did buy eight stores in June 2004 and soon lifted their turnover by 25%.

The group has developed a series of strategic partnerships to drive growth and now has airport stores on British Airport Authority land, a concession in the Selfridge store in the Birmingham Bullring (since 2003) and has opened units in House of Fraser department stores and Blackwells Books stores since 2004.

The expansion of its food offer to increase average spend has become more significant since its move into the provinces and in 2004 it was selling 70,000 paninis and sandwiches a week. It is also wooing technophiles with the roll-out of Wi-Fi internet facilities across its estate.

The group came 20th in the Europe’s 500 fastest-growing companies listing in both 2004 and 2005, when Café Nero also won the Coffee Bar Sandwich Retailer of the Year award and Ford scooped the Entrepreneur of the Year trophy at the PLC awards.

Ford is now looking to expand overseas through a joint venture in northern Europe and a master franchise in the Middle East. Branded products such as CDs, retail coffee packs and ice cream are also under consideration.  
In August 2006, Ford made an informal approach that could lead to a management buy-out of the group. He currently holds a 16.3% stake in the company.

Gerry Ford – Further information

Caffé Nero profile on CatererSearch

Caffé Nero official website

Wikipedia profile on Caffe Nero