PEOPLE, FOOD AND EXPERIENCE
©GQ
Allpress, Bills, Deus Ex Machina and Soho House, four household names that when you hear them, you know what to expect, given that you have an appreciation for tasty food, love a good drink and are in favour of unique experiences. Faced with new food delivery concepts, fast changing consumer preferences and the impact of COVID-19, it takes a special business to stay afloat and the right interaction to create a lifetime of loyalty to stay at the top.
Australian businessman Dare Jennings, founder of Mambo and Deus Ex Machina, knows how to make consumers excited and creating a close knitted community around its brands. When he started Mambo, it was art, it was music, it was surfing, it was clothing – it was all of his favorite things put together, creating an experience the customer wants to be a part of. More than creating a product and giving it to the consumer, Jennings stresses the importance of making a connection with customers and bringing them into the fold. Deus became something that people want to belong to, that they will subscribe to, and become a part of. “I always want people to feel like they have learned something or discovered an idea, an attitude,” he says. Deus has opened so-called “temples”, which are places you can come to, and things being built and things being made. They are not simple shops, but a combination of a bunch of experiences, which makes them far more interesting.
Jennings says that the businesses that he has created have always had an authenticity to them. The things that they have participated in have been real, reflecting the local market in the brand: “We can do something that we are passionate about, and care about, and we can take it to Italy. And we allow it to grow in an Italian sort of matter, so it takes on an Italian character. It is like planting a seed in different soils, the plant will grow according to the environment.” It is similar to the approach of the men behind Allpress, Bills and Soho House. “So if you go to Tokyo, our Japanese store is identifiably Deus but it has a Japanese flavour to it. Same in America, same in Bali,” Jennings continues. His philosophy is different from a Prada store in Italy, which will be exactly the same as the Prada store in Cape Town, or a Starbucks in Seattle not being any different from Starbucks in Shanghai, which are reflecting a local spirit, but are rolled out to a very tight brief.
Alongside its own flagship cafés, Allpress created a network of local coffee shops that are serving their roasts, focusing on the community, catering to a hip crowd, and turning into an international brand and powerful roasted coffee bean distribution business. For many, a cup of coffee is not just a beverage, it is an experience. Allpress understands this and trains each café that uses their beans to prepare each coffee the Allpress way. This ensures that every cup consistently delivers the refined taste they are known for, while their unique branding means that it can be identified anywhere in the world to take home and share with their friends, which is at the heart of everything Allpress does, bringing people together through a shared love of coffee.
The idea of a pick me up goes beyond caffeine. In an increasingly digital world, coffee has the ability to make people slow down and look around. It is partly due to Allpress’ kiwi roots that they truly believe that life is never best when experienced at a frenetic pace. In fact, Allpress and his team believe that lazy Sundays should be compulsory, family comes before Facebook and a day spent by the beach is the best way to wind down, with your head well out of the digital clouds. The business is a growing worldwide enterprise with roasteries in Dunedin, Auckland, Melbourne, Sydney, Tokyo and London, supplying 1000 independent cafes around the world. Allpress has developed significant institutional memory, focusing on the product experience and in pursuit of flavour, renowned for being reliable and providing a great cup of coffee.
Through its lounge spaces, spas, pools, screening rooms, hotels, and restaurants, Soho House caters to a selected community of a young, city-dwelling creative class. Nevertheless, the Soho House brand comprises more than its exclusive members-only clubs, and through its adjacent businesses, offers places that anyone can go to.
Soho House is in particular about the experience, about the working, relaxing and connecting with friends as well as like-minded people within the community. Although, with the rise of co-working places such as The Wing or WeWork, and new hotel concepts like The Standard and ACE Hotels, or Me and All and 25 Hours, one may wonder where does Soho House fit it in?
Being ‘creative’ has become more lucrative in many spheres, the freelance and startup economy has exploded, and the casualization of eating and playing have all come at the right time. Today there are more than 80,000 paying members across close to 30 clubs from Malibu to Istanbul, the latest having opened in Hong Kong last year, and each club is a reflection of its city.
Soho House Group has an array of side ventures such as a fledgeling co-working scheme (Soho Works), toiletries (Cowshed), and its own brand of juices (House Press), complementing the overall brand experience. It has also opened its own online store last year, selling homeware inspired by its various properties, complementing a holistic customer experience with vertically integrated product portfolio. In fact, Soho House now even has its own construction team, which booked GBP 62.5 million worth of work last year, allowing the company to control every facet of the build and design process.
Australian restaurateur Bill Granger, has built an impressive global business on what he calls “sunshine food”. “I’m always thinking about sunshine and light,” he says, no matter if it’s at an outpost in Bondi, Clerkenwell or Waikiki. “Australians live very much for the pleasure of the day to day, whether it is entertaining friends at home or sitting out in the street on a milk crate having a coffee. I have always celebrated our outdoors lifestyle with fresh, seasonal and simple everyday food.” Alongside his tv shows and books, restaurants are still his favourite, seeing people being really happy with food and getting really excited and having a nice coffee. Food is an amazing way to communicate with people. “It is all about looking after people and making them happy,” he says.
Although Sydney is an incredibly seductive city, in Granger’s opinion, London is the best place to eat in the world. Bill Granger, along with wife Natalie Elliott and their daughters Edie, Ines and Bunny, moved to the United Kingdom in 2009 and the first Granger & Co opened in 2011 in trendy Notting Hill and others soon followed, although UK trademarking issues restrict him from using the name Bills.
The self-taught cook’s ventures in London, Japan, Seoul and Hawaii all bear the hallmarks of his Aussie roots. But while the menu remains largely the same at each, they all have their own personalities. While the first Bills restaurant in Sydney’s Darlinghurst was, “easy and welcoming, like a sunny kitchen with a big table,” he says, the Notting Hill branch is about, “sitting in a friend’s kitchen, having a chat and a gossip”. For Hawaii, Granger wanted it to feel, “like a rich surf bum’s beach house”. On the other, in Seoul, the look is minimal and modern, reflecting the Korean approach to design.
In a world that is increasingly becoming gentrified and focused on digital-first, the man behind Allpress, Deus, Soho House and Bills prove the importance of sensory experiences in the physical world. As part of a holistic brand experience, a physical location is one of a handful of points of interaction, alongside social media and e-commerce. With their respective ventures, each of the four men have created a hub for people to come together and create lasting memories.
Whether it is Bill Granger’s outpost in Chelsea, Deus’ temple in Milan, Soho House’s Little Beach House near Barcelona, or Allpress’ coffee outlets, a physical touchpoint is by far the most important connection with client — one that grants the retailer all the control. It’s an opportunity for brands to showcase not only their products and services but also their values and sense of aesthetic. A well-designed, comfortable space can elevate the value of the business, complemented by an exceptional and personal customer service further heighten a customer’s positive sentiments for the brand. It is as a virtuous cycle, by striving for a transactional and emotional balance, it impact customer retention and repeat purchases.