Harts director Crispin Somerville has said that the restaurant group originally over-staffed its restaurants at Coal Drops Yard, after being reassured by landlord Argent of a huge rush of Christmas shoppers at the King’s Cross, London development.
He said the generally challenging retail trading environment, overly-niche retail concepts, and a weather-exposed shopping space had contributed to a slower than anticipated start.
Despite this, Somerville said the group’s Barrafina, Casar Pastor, Plaza Pastor and The Drop sites had been busy and had accounted for 30% of turnover of the entire scheme in December.
He said that the landlord/developer Argent had been listening to concerns and looking to improve the retail offer and environment of the scheme.
Somerville said: “We are at the behest and mercy of the landlord, and exist within the framework of - let’s call a spade a spade - a shopping centre. The landlord insisted we open on 26 October with their anticipation there would be a traditional huge rush of shoppers from November onwards. We staffed restaurants accordingly, but this couldn’t have been further from what unfolded.
“This illustrates our main challenges. It is the fact that retail is taking a hammering, and Coal Drops Yard perhaps isn’t attracting the kind of shoppers it needs to. The footfall has been lower than the landlord confidently predicted.”
Somerville said the group had undertaken its own marketing, including giving away £375,000 in value of food by way of promotion, with the restaurants becoming destinations, rather than relying on shopper footfall.
“This was very successful for us,” he said. “We’ve been busy since day one, and had a busy Christmas period. The exposure of Coal Drops Yard’s main courtyard to the winter elements has made it a difficult environment for customers,” Somerville added. “January to be frank was pretty desolate. What dawns in a month like that is the transposition of the beautiful Heatherwick renderings of what the site would look like, to the reality of what is quite a challenging courtyard at vast expanse, and the public have found that quite challenging in terms of dwelling.
RPA Perspective
Coal Drops Yard is clearly going through teething issues in terms of
establishing itself as a destination and Somerville described it as a “retail
offering which hasn’t had full connection yet, and the simple fact this is whole
new part of London.”
Argent has done an amazing job of reactivating this part of London and yet there is a sense that Coal Drops Yard may need to go through some iterations before it hits the right formula. The first of those that in putting architecture first and installing high-end, niche retailers, it does not immediately promote repeat visits.
In our view the weather is something of a distraction, after all many high streets remain successful. Yet the space feels too impersonal and it needs some humanising, which in fairness is no doubt part of the maturing process.
Yet it is worth noting that a scheme which is a poster boy for the new retail mix has not been an instant hit but is having to evolve to get the formula right.
Despite his cocnerns, Somerville said the group was optimistic about the summer and praised Argent for addressing the issues, who he called “very progressive, very communicative. They’re listening.”
Harts Group will open its fifth restaurant in the King’s Cross development in May, called Parillan.
