Activities

Metrodiner is the privately-owned operator of the Las Iguanas line of Latin American-themed restaurants. Some of the earlier, smaller venues were originally called Café Iguanas.

The group is majority-owned by its co-founders, Sri Lankan Ajith Jaya-Wickrema and Turkish-Cypriot Eren Ali. Private equity firm Piper Private Equity also holds a stake in the firm.

The restaurants serve up authentic Latin American food against a backdrop of Latin design and music. The cuisine is a fusion of Latin American Indian, Spanish, Portuguese and African influences and the signature dish is Ximxim Brasilian lime chicken.
 
The restaurant bars (or Cachaçaria) serve Cachaça, a spirit distilled from sugar cane that is the national drink of Brazil. Metrodiner produces its own brand of the spirit (Las Iguanas Magnifica) from its own sugar field and production plant just outside Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

Timeline

• April 1991: Metrodiner opens its first Las Iguanas in St Nicholas Street, Bristol, but closes the property in May 2002 as it no longer fits the brand specification.
• 1995: The group opens new branches in Cardiff and Clifton, Bristol. The Bristol branch, which occupies the site of the founders’ Johnny Yens Wok Diner restaurant, is originally branded Café Iguanas.
• December 1997: A second Café Iguana opens in Bath.
• July 1998: A fifth Las Iguanas opens in Birmingham.
• 2002: Metrodiner raises £3.9m for expansion from the Royal Bank of Scotland and venture capitalist Piper Private Equity, which takes a stake in the company.
• 2003: The group opens new branches in Sheffield and Leicester. In October, it buys its own Cachaça sugar cane field and distillery on the Fazenda do Anil (or Indigo Farm) estate outside Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The operation is overseen by the plantation owner, master Cachaça maker João Luiz.
• 2004: An eighth Las Iguanas opens in Nottingham.
• 2005: New venues in Leeds and Brighton take the brand to nine restaurants.

Operating data

Like-for-like sales for the four weeks over Christmas 2005 increased by 18.3%

Number of restaurants: 9

Locations: Bath, Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol (Clifton), Cardiff, Leeds, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield

Total number of employees: more than 250

Average size of restaurants: 120-140 seats with another 20 to 40 seats in the bar

The largest Las Iguanas (in London’s Royal Festival Hall) covers 4,000 sq ft and has 225 seats inside and another 100 seats outside. The smallest branch (in Clifton, Bristol) has 70 seats.

Strategy

The group plans to open around three to four new restaurants a year. Long-term, it sees scope for more than 100 Las Iguanas in the UK, including up to 25 within the M25.

Source: Commercial director Ajith Jaya-Wickrema, January 2006

Key directors

Managing director and co-founder: Eren Ali
Commercial director and co-founder: Ajith Jaya-Wickrema
Executive chef-director: Alan Craine
Mos Shamel: operations director

Contact

113 Whiteladies Road
Bristol
BS8 2PB

Tel: 0117 970 6664
Fax: 0117 970 6907

E-mail: info@metrodiner.co.uk
Website: http://www.iguanas.co.uk

Commentary

Now it has established an infrastructure for expansion, Las Iguanas is ready to step up its opening programme to around three of four restaurants a year.

It has drawn up a wish list of 63 sites in city centres and suburbs (including 33 in and around London) and, in 2005, hired Insight Retail Consulting to spearhead its search for suitable venues.

It is looking for city centre and suburban sites that can offer good daytime and night time trade that range from 2,800-4,500 sq ft in size.

It has three new openings planned for 2006, including its London debut at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank.

This prestigious venue, which attracted bids from 19 other operators, will open in May along with a new restaurant in Bristol’s Harbourside. Metrodiner will make its first move into Scotland at the end of the year in Glasgow.

The group is also planning restaurants for Milton Keynes, Oxford and Manchester.