In this week’s SME Focus a veteran of the restaurants business says success in the sector requires having the ability to respond to fast-changing tastes while remembering that cash is king .

Name:

Alan Dexter.

Age:

58.

What is your business called?

Barca Tapas, NY American Grill, Cranachan, Azur Bistro and Café Bombon.

What services does it offer?

We have a portfolio of restaurants, bars and cafes offering a diverse variety of food and drink for all palates and occasions.

Whom does it sell to?

As all of the venues are situated in Princes Square shopping centre, right in the heart of Glasgow, we cater to the casual dining market. This includes a wide ranging clientele from ladies who lunch, families looking for an informal dinner to large parties celebrating a special occasion.

What is its turnover?

Estimated to reach £4,000,000 this year.

How many employees?

Approximately 100.

When was it formed?

Our first restaurant at Princes Square, Barca, was opened in 2005 and following on from its success we have gradually expanded our portfolio over the years. Our Mediterranean restaurant, Azur Bistro is our latest venture, which we launched last October.

Why did you take the plunge?

You could say I always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit and when I left school I knew I wanted to create something of my own, so going into business seemed like a fairly natural step to take.

What were you doing before you took the plunge?

I actually started out in the working world by owning a record shop of all things. I opened it in the 1970s in Greenock but after three years of building the business, I decided I wanted to go into bars and restaurants. I sold the shop and took a job at Nicos on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow so I could learn the ins and outs of the licensed trade. This turned out to be the only job I ever had where I worked for someone else, but it was a great experience as it equipped me with the skills and knowledge I needed to start running my own venues. For the next 30 years I opened and ran a range of coffee shops, bars and food courts across the country from Dundee to Manchester.

For example, I opened a bar called Cafe Noir in Queen St in 1984 and expanded this concept to 4 units in Edinburgh and Perth before selling the chain in 1989.

I then started a coffee shop in St Enoch Center and expanded this concept into four units in Manchester, Edinburgh and Newcastle.

When the opportunity arose at Princes Square, I knew it was my chance to diversify into restaurants and was keen to get creative by coming up with new concepts for the centre.

The unit currently occupied by Barca was vacated by its previous tenant end of 2004. I discovered it was available in January 2005 and opened Barca as my first full bar and restaurant that May.

How did you raise the start-up funding?

I was lucky when I started the record shop as I got financial support from family and friends. On the back of selling that I managed to open and sell around 30 businesses over the years which built up some capital, and combined with a bank loan helped start up my current businesses at Princes Square.

What was your biggest break?

In 2007 the centre was sold to Redevko a Dutch family who amongst other things own the C&A chain throughout Europe.

I have found working with their management team very forward thinking and they have helped me expand into the five units we now operate in Princes square.

What was your worst moment?

I must admit, my heart did sink when the recession hit as it happened right in the middle of our restaurant expansion. However we managed to trade pretty strongly throughout. Our main market is casual dining so by ensuring that we offered our customers the best possible value for money we managed to weather the storm.

What do you most enjoy about running the business?

Without a doubt, the planning stage where you have a complete blank canvas and can really get the creative juices flowing. We’ve got such a diverse range of restaurants at the moment that specialise in everything from Spanish tapas to traditional Scottish fayre, so it’s been fantastic to develop so many different concepts. It’s exciting to be able to start with an idea and see it through each step of the process, from gathering the capital to make it happen, designing menus and interiors, recruiting staff and finally seeing the hard work pay off as everything comes together at the launch. There really is nothing better than the thrill of a busy opening night, full of guests enjoying what you have created.

What do you least enjoy?

The restaurant industry is extremely fast-paced so the day to day running can be stressful and the hours long, so I tend to take a back seat on that side of the business these days.

What is your biggest bugbear?

There seems to be more and more red tape involved in running restaurants with rules and regulations constantly changing. The communication of these changes from various bodies is pretty poor so you’ve really got to work hard at staying abreast of it all.

What are your ambitions for the firm?

I’m delighted that my son, daughter and her husband have all joined the business so moving forward we will definitely be looking at ways to combine my experience of the industry with their fresh ideas. The casual dining market is evolving at a breath-taking pace, so we are constantly looking at what we can do next. Street food is really taking off at the moment, with diners looking for less formal environments and menus, so perhaps we’ll look to do something along the lines of a pan-Asian noodle bar or a Mexican kitchen in the near future to stay ahead of market trends.

What are your top priorities?

It may sound a cliché but in this industry the customer is king so maintaining high levels of food quality, customer service and value for money are absolutely vital for us. Other than that we will be looking at maintaining our units to the highest possible standard and looking at ways to evolve the business with the next generation of my family taking more of a lead.

What was the most valuable lesson that you learned?

The restaurant business is notoriously difficult to succeed in and I have seen so many businesses fall by the way side because they haven’t put enough cash in reserve to see themselves through the inevitable down times. So protecting my cash flow has definitely been the most valuable lesson I have learned.

What could the Westminster and/or Scottish governments do that would help?

VAT is a big Achilles heel for the hospitality sector at the moment. I believe that bars and restaurants are taxed excessively, especially when compared to supermarkets as they pay virtually no VAT in respect of food sales. This is a serious economic disadvantage so a cut in VAT on food sales would make a real difference in driving footfall for tourists and the general public.

How do you relax?

For me, there’s no better place to relax than the golf course, where switching your phone off is mandatory. Not looking at e-mails for three to four hours is a real luxury!