Jyotin Sethi: “I expect in the next 12 months a couple of international sites will open with our names on them”

Jyotin Sethi is CEO of JKS Restaurants, having joined the company following a successful 10-year career in private equity with Barclays. Along with his two siblings he oversees growth of the multi-concept group, which has most recently entered into the pub space with the opening of The George and The Cadogan Arms and also into food halls, with Arcade Food Hall, which opened in Oxford Street’s Centre Point earlier this year. A second food hall, twice the size of Arcade at 25,000sq ft, will open in Battersea Power Station in June 2023.

What was the reason behind moving into pubs and food halls?

JKS Group is built on multi cuisine and multi brands, we are always looking to push boundaries and challenge ourselves and ply our creative and commercial acumen in different types of restaurants and cuisine, so pubs and food halls was an extension of that mindset where we thought we could create something special. Fundamentally, what we start with is ‘do we want to do it?, ‘do we have the bandwidth?’, ‘who do we want to do it with?’ and ‘does it make sense commercially?’. When we looked at opportunities in the pub space and with Arcade Food Hall all the boxes were ticked. With Arcade the add on was the opportunity to really start using it as a platform to develop and create new brands and partnerships in a way we weren’t able to do before. Previous to opening Arcade, to really test something we’d open a restaurant with a partner but now we have a new platform to do that. We’ve just introduced Mexican brand Sonora Taqueria into Arcade and we will continue to drop new brands into the food hall as it evolves over the coming months and years.

How did Arcade Food Hall come about?

We first spoke to the owners in 2018 and offered to take all eight kitchens but they were quite far down the route with other conversations, so we took a step back. Then lockdown hit and I closed, and we picked up the conversation. It was a reset moment to take over all the kitchens but that then went to running the entire venue. To make the food side of the business successful we needed to control all the aspects of it rather than let it be done by someone else.

What learnings will you take from Arcade to Battersea?

Arcade is a beast, it has lots of moving parts, so we’ve realised we need to build a dedicated team for it as opposed to it being run within the JKS infrastructure. From a food proposition we are looking to go broader than at Centre Point with more types of cuisines - it’s a 450-capacity venue​​ so it needs to appeal to as many people as possible. In terms of guest experience, at Arcade we used tech to enhance what we thought was disjoined in the traditional food hall environment and that’s definitely here to stay. We’re looking at how we can enhance the tech we currently use at Centre Point in Battersea. The question we are asking ourselves is how important is that open theatre kitchen set up? Do you need that because people aren’t ordering from the kitchens any more but ordering on the app. Can we go to a single kitchen more traditional restaurant set up? It is easier to run operationally, and we can operate delivery out of it. Plaza been very successful at Arcade and has given people a separate reason to visit and we are looking to incorporate a couple of full-service restaurants into Battersea to drive more repeat visits.

What plans do you have beyond the capital?

Because of the approach we have taken with multi cuisines and multi brands there’s plenty for us still do to in London, but there’s no denying the fact that there are opportunities outside of London in the UK and internationally. There are real growth opportunities in the Middle East, Asia, and the US. There’s plenty of conversations going on at the moment and we’ve got to work out how we best want to do that. We are lucky that our brands have an international following – but do we do it ourselves, do a JV or is it a licence structure? Each has its pros and cons. I expect in the next 12 months a couple of international sites will open with our names on them.”

You have a finance background. How do regard the current climate?

For us it’s about navigating the storm. It feels like it’s been around for a couple of years now and we’re assuming the uncertainty around trading conditions will continue to the end of next year at least. Our annual electricity bill across the group is over £1m so the cap helps, but what happens beyond March? Even the cap is above some of our existing contracted rates so that’s something we have to deal with. Being an operator in this sector you have to be an optimist and pretty resilient, you need to have stamina. Beyond that the growth opportunities is that people really value the occasion of eating out so if you run a great restaurant the demand is there. Some people won’t survive and there will be opportunities off the back of that in terms of sites and people.

What does your growth strategy look like?

Our group is a collection of brands, some of these are intrinsically linked to a named chef, like Kitchen Table and Lyle’s, some are based around a cuisine, like Bao and Hoppers, and all these brands will evolve and grow in different ways. Some will be growing into delivery and retail, some physical roots. We will continue to develop the casual brands that have the opportunity to open more than a single site in London, but our group has been built on having the Bibi,​ Sabors​​, and Gymkhanas of this world and we will continue to run a dual strategy of growth, which is more complex. Life would be simpler if we stuck with just one concept.

JKS is known for having its finger on the pulse. What are the untapped areas in the eating out space?

Our Speedboat Bar ​​opens this week and there is a huge amount of other regional Thai cuisines that we want to showcase. We have something coming in Battersea as a third site in that mini Thai group On the Indian side, we have things in the pipeline. Yes, we like new trends, but we are also looking at showcasing what we already do in a slightly different way to make sure we are not spreading ourselves too thin.

What has been the most significant moment in the business so far?

Getting a Michelin Bib Gourmand at Trishna in September 2011. We opened it in 2008 with no background in hospitality and it was hell for two years. We couldn’t make it work, it was losing money hand over fist and had received mixed critical reviews, so that moment was a recognition that we’d fixed a lot of the problems and gave us a sense of relief and confidence to keep pushing on. That Bib became a Michelin star the following year and then the group started taking shape. The second restaurant we opened was our first partnership [Kitchen Table and Bubbledogs] and that was another important milestone because if that hadn’t worked maybe we wouldn’t have partnered with any more people. That was the pint I decided to pack in private equity and focus on being an operator for the next stage of my career.

Jyotin Sethi was speaking at the Restaurant Conference, organised by BigHospitality's sister publication MCA. For more breaking news, visit here​​