Restaurant business grows to six sites with plans to expand the concept further
GLASGOW operator and entrepreneur Paul Reynolds is on the verge of a considerable expansion of his Stack & Still business.
The pancake restaurant group founded by Reynolds and business partner Graham Swankie in October 2018 had grown to four outlets by the beginning of this year, with a fifth (in Livingston) opening last week and a sixth – in Edinburgh – due to follow in the coming weeks.
The expansion won’t stop there. When Reynolds spoke to SLTN in June he was finalising a “substantial” loan to help further develop the business.
The company is now so sizeable that Reynolds has placed his other venture – Gin71 – on the market so that he can focus exclusively on growing Stack & Still.
All of this paints a very positive picture, but Reynolds was keen to point out that – like businesses across Scotland – the pandemic took its toll on Stack & Still.
Just prior to the first national lockdown, the directors were on the verge of securing a major investment from an equity company.
When COVID-19 came along, the deal fell through.
“We had a £7 million valuation with £2m on the table, and for that to fall apart at the start of COVID, you sort of think ‘what are we going to do?’” said Reynolds.
Despite being a blow at the time, however, the operator is adamant that things worked out for the best.
Since then – and without securing any additional finance – the company acquired the leases for the Livingston site, at The Centre shopping centre, and the former Jamie’s Kitchen site in the centre of Edinburgh.
If the equity deal had been signed things may have worked out differently.
“I really liked the guys at the investment house, and I really liked the support we would’ve got on that growth,” said Reynolds.
“But where we had a differing opinion was very much around Edinburgh.
“They wanted us to be in the St James Centre. We didn’t. Because our model is not about building new sites. Our model is about looking at distressed inventory, where a lot of the money has already been spent on that M&E and those big fit-out costs.
“If you look at Jamie Oliver’s in Edinburgh, which we’ve taken on, that’s a beautiful space and we’ll fit that out for under £100,000.
“So very much our model is that inventory of great sites we can take and turn.”
The new investment, meanwhile, will allow the team to take the Stack & Still concept to more locations.
“The growth is going to be Scotland and beyond, now,” said Reynolds.
“It’s going to be about how we take it elsewhere – whether that’s Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, London.”
