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A restaurant chain founded by three New Zealanders is turning into one of Britain's most successful new food businesses - a year after the Kiwis sold out for £10 million ($25.7 million).
Under new owners Clapham House Group, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, based on "relaxed Kiwi-style dining", is being
rolled out across London and Britain at a breakneck pace. Clapham House, an umbrella company for restaurant chains, has ambitions to turn GBK, as it is popularly known, into the leading up-market burger eatery in Britain.
GBK was established six years ago by Greg Driscoll, Brandon Allen and Adam Wills, all of whom went through school and university together in New Zealand.
Since buying the company outright from the trio, Clapham House has rapidly increased the number of outlets. In April, it opened two more in London and will this year expand into Scotland.
Clapham House is so impressed by the brand's potential that it is looking for 100 more sites across Britain.
It is largely the success of GBK that has attracted investment banks and other institutional shareholders to the share register of Clapham House, which is listed on the London exchange's junior board, AIM.
The company has found that new outlets generally pay their way almost as soon as they open.
"GBK restaurants are profitable from day one," said chief executive Paul Campbell, a veteran of the restaurant trade. "And this has been the case both inside and outside Greater London."
So encouraged is Clapham House that it has raised another £4.5 million through the issue of new shares "to accelerate the roll-out".
Since the start of the 2006 financial year, Clapham House has added 13 GBK outlets including ones in Britain's hottest tourist spots - St Paul's and Covent Garden - as well as the first outside London, an 85-seater in Brighton.
Using the cash generated by the outlets, the company has just opened two new restaurants - in Greenwich and Walton-on-Thames - and will shortly launch three more, in Cambridge, Notting Hill and Lakeside. A further seven are in the pipeline.
By the end of the year, Clapham House will have more than tripled the size of the chain from the six outlets it acquired in November 2004, with a down payment of £2.6 million. The New Zealanders stayed on for 18 more months before cashing out.
The runaway growth has occurred in one of the most competitive retail commercial markets as Britons rush affordable restaurants in a general "flight to quality" in fast food. In what is known as the "posh burger" market, GBK is up against competitors such as The Burger Company, Hamburger Union and Ultimate Burger.
GBK's burgers, which cost £7 to £9 ($18-$23) for recipes such as Chicken Satay, Falafel, Chicken Camembert, Jamaican and, of course Kiwiburger with beetroot, egg, cheese and pineapple, are far from the priciest in the burger wars. That honour belongs to the £55 wagyu burger at Zuma in Knightsbridge.
Clapham House has hardly touched the original formula. It has, however, added seasonal recipes such as the Kiwi Xmas burger stuffed with turkey, ham, avocado and a kiwifruit salsa.
The founders, who did not want to be interviewed, may have some cause to feel aggrieved at the rapid expansion of the business since they cashed out, albeit very profitably, after what friends say was 10 years of punishing effort. At the present rate of growth, GBK could easily be worth £100 million when it reaches 100 outlets.
However it would have been difficult for the founders to take GBK so far so fast. Clapham House's principals, all well-known in the City, have access to the institutional cash needed to expand the format.
GBK's growth under Clapham House has not been without problems. Last year, when the directors tried to launch an international franchise in the Middle East, starting with Kuwait and the Emirates, after receiving several approaches to do so, it sparked a flurry of lawyer's letters from the Wellington-based Burger Wisconsin chain.
According to Burger Wisconsin, the New Zealand GBK founders had reached an agreement to replicate its gourmet burger formula in Britain and Ireland, without using the Wisconsin name. However the situation changed when the new owners wanted to take the format international.
At the time Clapham House insisted the dispute was without substance and it has been quietly resolved.
Since then GBK has gone international, with three sites already open in Dubai and Kuwait and a further three on the blocks.
Successful as it is, GBK's rapid rollout is unlikely to threaten McDonald's, which boasts almost 1300 outlets in Britain, or Burger King with 650.
But GBK's founders have the satisfaction of knowing they pioneered the posh burger market in Britain and paved the way for imitators such as Hamburger Union and Fine Burger Company.
Even McDonald's has taken note. In May the golden arch launched its own posh offering - the Deluxe Burger - and has promised more gourmet recipes.
