Boisdale has appetite for expansion

Published on Saturday 30 May 2009 14:29

RANALD Macdonald, the City of London restaurateur behind Scottish bistro group Boisdale, is defying the credit crunch with a £5 million expansion that will see him export the brand overseas.

Plans to expand the restaurant and jazz group, whose two sites in Belgravia and the City are favoured by the Scotia Nostra, are being drawn up, with a fourth venture in Canary Wharf and an overseas franchise in the United States.

Macdonald, the elder son of the 24th Captain of Clanranald, says that despite the economic downturn business is booming, and that there is a growing appetite for an unmanufactured Scottish experience.

He said: "The aim now is to look at expansion within the UK as well as overseas, with the aim of turning Boisdale into an international brand. Currently Boisdale is looking at sites in Canary Wharf, Washington and Havana. Boisdale are also committed to finding a joint-venture hotel opportunity in Scotland for a Boisdale branded restaurant and whisky bar.

"We have been looking, and are looking very closely at the possibility of opening in Havana. We have a particular site and partner in mind but none of it is contracted yet."

Macdonald has close ties with Cuba. Five years ago, in a deal with the government, he exported Havana's Floridita restaurant to Soho and has since opened branches in Dublin, Madrid, Moscow and Leeds.

In 1989 he first opened Boisdale, named after a remote port in the Outer Hebrides, home of the Macdonalds of Clanranald, an ancient Scottish clan of which his father is chief.

In 2002 he opened a second Boisdale restaurant in Bishopsgate, London, which was immediately profitable, and in 2004 Boisdale purchased a country inn called the Lamb at Hindon in Wiltshire and with his brother Andrew founded Havana Holdings, which has the rights to the Floridita brand that opened restaurants in London and Madrid. This year the combined business will have a turnover of 6m.