What do the many millions of visitors to Abba Voyage at the Abba Arena, St Paul’s Cathedral, any of 15 branches of John Lewis department store, the British Film Institute on London’s Southbank, London Zoo and the British Museum have in common?
The unlikely answer is their hospitality, which in various different incarnations is all provided by the same company, Benugo, which over the last 20 years has grown into a company with annual sales of £135 million. Yet it is still run, very personably, by its chairman and the man who gave it half its name: Ben Warner. (The other half was provided by his brother Hugo although he is no longer involved.)
The growth of this largely unknown company is a tale of many parts. Ben, a youthful 60 this June, began his hospitality career 30 years ago as a Pret a Manger franchisee with two coffee shops in London’s financial district. These he handed back when he was persuaded by his brother to go into business with him and in 1998 they opened their first cafe, selling coffees, sandwiches and the kind of cakes you remember eating as a child. With style, enhanced by their use of lower-case letters for their name, which gave them an unsought-for association with Japan, they prospered via shops on the high street.
In 2008 Benugo was sold to BaxterStorey, part of the much larger WSH hospitality group, which has allowed Benugo to invest more easily and also to expand overseas. In 2017 they took over Musiam in Paris, a catering and events service that is part of Alain Ducasse’s culture business.
In the early 2000s when I was a consultant to several arts organisations, I was continually on the lookout for companies that could produce good-quality sandwiches, coffees and cakes and were prepared to operate anonymously, a strict criterion for these clients. I kept an eye on two companies: Company of Cooks (who took on the hospitality contract at the South Bank Centre) and the nascent Benugo. If either of them won a contract, that would keep them out of any competition for a couple of years at least.
I had no hesitation in putting Benugo forward for the Victoria & Albert Museum contract. It came down to a decision between them and a couple representing the Ivy Group in those days who were primarily interested in the contract for its significant events business. The decision went to the V&A board and it was the voice of David Sainsbury who won it for Benugo with one simple question: which of the two companies before us, he was reputed to have asked, makes the better sandwiches? Benugo rightly won the contract.
Since then, the company has gone on to win the contracts at numerous other arts organisations, predominantly in London but also in Oxford, at the Ashmolean Museum, and in Edinburgh, at Edinburgh Castle, plus various others around the UK. They have proved as patient when answering the seemingly interminable questions lodged in every tender as they have been competent in making their sandwiches.
By way of explanation, all arts organisations fulfil their hospitality requirements via a long, complex tender document which specifies the precise length of the contract – usually five or seven years. Anything shorter will not incentivise the supplier and anything longer can tie both parties in an unhappy marriage. But these contracts can, if both sides are agreeable, be extended mutually without the need to go out to tender. The COVID-19 period provided the background for numerous contractual rollovers such as Benugo’s at the Ashmolean in Oxford, which has just been renewed for another few years.
All of this leaves Warner with fixed and astute views on the current food scene in the UK. The first is how today everybody is something of a food expert. ‘Everybody has an opinion, a view on the way most dishes should be cooked and everybody is interested in the whole topic. I’ve just come back from Oxford and was told that some of the staff may turn up to my presentation about our future plans. There were more than 150 of them in the audience! It was wonderful that so many are interested in what we serve and our plans for the next stage, where we intend to cover the outdoor terrace and make it all waterproof.’
The second is to understand what sells, what it is the general public wants for breakfast, elevenses, lunch, tea and for their early-evening supper. ‘I remember once at John Lewis on Oxford Street there was somebody from on high who was complaining that there was no sushi on the menu as there is down the road at Selfridges [another, rather jazzier, department store]. And I had to explain the difference in the customer base and why it is so important for us to give the customers not just what they are looking for but also what they expect.’
The final point he made was even more straightforward: over the past five years a presence on the high street has become increasingly more difficult and less profitable. ‘The first and the most obvious reason’, said Warner, ‘has been COVID and its consequences. Mondays and Fridays are much less busy than in pre-COVID days. Then there is the ubiquity of Pret. There may be better coffee, sandwiches and cake in other places but no other high-street company can match them for speed of service and overall value for money.’
Over the years, Benugo has expanded its repertoire. As well as coffee and sandwiches they have restaurants which serve far more elaborate food, and to serve their customers’ needs they have developed an events business. But all this is from a base of supplying the essentials – sandwiches, cups of tea, cakes that look as though they are homemade, and a lot of coffee, of which they sell £10 million worth every year.
Their modus operandi has changed over the years. They needed a large production kitchen to convince their initial customers, and they still have a 25,000-ft2 (2,323-m2) unit in Bermondsey, south of the Thames, from which they produce approximately 60,000 products a week – a combination of bakery items, salads, sandwiches and platters. But as they have won more contracts, they have acquired more satellite kitchens to service the 500,000 customers they serve across the UK in a busy half-term week.
On top of all this sits Warner, who looks pretty calm – from the outside anyway. Towards the end of our lunch in the restaurant at the top of the National Portrait Gallery (owned by the same company as Benugo), I wondered how he manages such a large and complex company. He replied just like any enthusiastic restaurateur: ‘Benugo has the most incredible team who, I believe, would walk over coals for their customers. So my job is to look after them. With a happy staff we produce happy customers.’ Then he added, with a smile, ‘We all have a graduate degree in disasters and in how to avoid them.’
Every Saturday, Nick writes about restaurants. To stay abreast of his reviews, sign up for our weekly newsletter.
