Interview: Mario Gizzi, co-founder and director of restaurant group DRG behind brands such as Di Maggio’s and Cafe Andaluz

Hospitality boss on seeking to grow a Glaswegian restaurant group into a UK-wide empire.

Mario Gizzi is co-founder and director of restaurant group DRG, which originated in 1985 with Glasgow’s Di Maggio’s, and has served some 26 million diners since it was founded, at venues including Amarone, Anchor Line, Atlantic, Barolo, Cadiz, Cafe Andaluz, and The Citizen, while it it has almost 800 staff.

The entrepreneur trained as a chartered accountant, which he says gave him “a firm grasp of” how a company works. “It was inevitable I’d start a business, and I wanted it to be in hospitality. An opportunity arose with my uncle, Joe Conetta [whose son Tony took over when he retired], and what would ultimately become DRG was born.”

And they saw a gap in the market in that family dining was the norm in Italy, but not in Scotland. “We opened our first Di Maggio’s in Ruthven Lane, in Glasgow’s West End, then expanded with further restaurants in Shawlands, Royal Exchange Square, Hamilton, Airdrie, and East Kilbride.” However, it was recently refused permission to open new premises on Glasgow’s Byres Road. Gizzi says a key moment was when it opened the first Cafe Andaluz tapas restaurant, also in Glasgow’s West End, and that name is now present in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Newcastle.

Mario Gizzi is co-founder and director of restaurant group DRG, which originated in 1985 with Glasgow’s Di Maggio’s.

DRG at the end of last year unveiled a new branch of Cafe Andaluz in Edinburgh’s Stockbridge, how does this play into the ongoing expansion strategy both of that brand and DRG as a whole?

The reception to the Stockbridge Cafe Andaluz has been exceptional and is exactly why we opened it. Tapas continues to be a popular style of dining – it’s relatable, and reminds people of happy times on holiday in Spain. It’s another pillar in the progression of the business, and we have plans to grow the brand further. We are actively looking for a second restaurant in Newcastle, and beyond that we hope to take the brand further south and into London, should the right opportunities arise.

Tony and I spend a lot of time monitoring the market in Scotland, and now in England, looking for appropriate sites in areas we think a new restaurant will complement. It’s a dream that we may one day have a DRG restaurant in every UK major city, but we’ve been in business since 1985 because we take a responsible and measured approach to growth, only moving when the opportunity is right. It’s nice to think we may one day get there – but it won’t happen before I retire.

Are you planning to launch new brands or acquire other restaurant businesses?

Cafe Andaluz, Stockbridge.

Not at present. We have a strong portfolio of brands across enough sectors and food types to have all bases covered. Our plans are more about growing what we have. If we were to acquire other restaurant businesses, it’d be to convert sites into one of our brands.

How did you navigate the pandemic, and what lessons have you taken forward from it?

I am proud of the way we all pulled together to approach and handle it. Due to the way we run the business, we were able to dig into reserves to look after our team. We actually implemented our own version of furlough before the UK government introduced its own. It meant we didn’t lose a single member of staff, and were in a good position to rebound when things did open back up again. We also opened up a number of our kitchens to produce meals for the homeless during the pandemic.

Our restaurants that don’t own their premises were able to reach agreements on rents with their landlords. We learned how important it is to let staff know about security and stability. Everybody needed to know they were and will be looked after.

DRG is part of the Scottish Hospitality Group, which like other sector trade bodies has criticised the Scottish Government for not providing further support for the sector in its recent Budget. What key actions would you like to see to help the industry?

In Scotland we need support with rates. The current system is totally outdated and causes the licensed trade to lose 8.5 per cent of turnover. We disagree with that. Good operators are effectively penalised for their success by paying more for the same premises that poorer performing businesses would – that can’t be right. In England, hospitality firms receive relief on rates.

We’d like to see the Scottish Government take the same approach to help stimulate the industry, encourage new businesses to the country, and reward them for running companies well. At a UK level, a discounted VAT rate for hospitality would help. The same kind of firms on the continent pay far less VAT, and we’d like to see a rate of around 8 per cent.

DRG says its passion is “developing hospitality heroes”, and supported Hospitality Rising’s Rise Fast, Work Young campaign to help fill the industry’s hundreds of thousands of vacancies. What needs to be done to plug the gap, and how are you working to make hospitality an attractive long-term career option?

We’ve worked hard to make the industry more attractive as a career path through better wages, shorter weeks, and more sociable hours. Training is also key, and driven by our head of people development Kath Knox – who worked her way up from waiting staff to senior management – we’ve introduced programmes including our modern apprenticeship system.

Who do you admire in the business world?

My heroes are hospitality heroes – people like Sir Reo Stakis, Richard Caring, or the Forte family. They’ve come in, started a business, and grown it into an empire. We’re still trying to discover the secret. The key is to have the right people – start with family, you need to have a team around you, and add those who can do things you can’t. And treat them like family.