Why Rekom has expanded its presence into the UK with Proud Mary
We spoke to Russell Quelch, executive country director at Rekom UK, discussing the expansion into the UK and its plans ahead.
Tell me about the history of Rekom.
Rekom started in Copenhagen in 2007, a group of individual bars decided to stop competing against each other and decided to come together to create one company. Over the last 25 years it’s grown from just Copenhagen to other parts of Denmark, and around 2014 the decision was made to move into Norway and expand there. Then they decided to move into Finland, we now have 10 venues in Finland. Each country runs individually, there’s a ‘me’ in each country that reports to Copenhagen.
Why did Rekom decide to expand into the UK?
When we went into the Covid-19 administration period, there was the opportunity for Rekom to acquire a business which had 45 venues in the UK and that was the move into the UK market. They purchased the business which already had a UK infrastructure and applied our strategy to grow and introduce UK concepts into the Nordic region and primarily look at Nordic concepts such as Proud Mary and introduce them to the UK market.
The UK was definitely on the radar, there had been conversations and opportunities. The strategy is to always want to move into new countries and increase business internationally. The UK is an easy market to move into as there is no real language barrier.
Why has Rekom decided to open Proud Mary now?
The initial plan was to identify concepts from the Nordic brands we felt would work in the UK. We quickly identified Hiedi’s and Proud Mary and developed a footprint of what the venue needed to look like so it could operate with similarities to what the concept is, then we developed the UK version.
Why did Rekom pick Cardiff for the first Proud Mary in the UK?
We started to look at sites in summer 2022, the first one that came along was Hiedi’s Cardiff on Mill Lane, we launched that in March 2022 and then we continued to look for the right sites, with the right location, with the right footprint to deliver the concept. We want to build clusters around where we have infrastructure which is why Cardiff is a good location. It was important to pick cities that we know well.
We were looking at all the major cities across the UK, it was more about finding the right site first and that could have been anywhere. It’s a great city, it enjoys hospitality and the latenight sector and it has got one of the best mixes of people. We always found the authorities are flexible and understand new concepts because of the nature of the city, it’s open to new ideas.
Are the concepts run differently in each country?
The concept has core values, which remain across all the countries. Proud Mary is music, fun, a great pub environment, design stays the same across. Proud Mary has a wooden floor, that is non-negotiable! It has a clear brand standard.
We will make local amends to that, for Cardiff we will feature a Welsh design and local beers. Pricing and product will always be localised as trends change from city to city and county to country.
What will the £1.2m investment go towards?
The vast majority of the investment will go towards the site itself, then the refurbishment, taking the venue from the previous concept to a Proud Mary. Then some small launch costs to let the whole city know we are launching. It is more difficult with listed buildings as there are guidelines to respect but this site is straightforward.
Although it’s early in the project, have you experienced any challenges?
It’s been smooth sailing so far, we are only two weeks into the project but everything has gone to plan. We have a great team on site, building and developing, it’s a combination of UK knowledge and Nordic design.
Does Rekom worry about decreasing hospitality worker availability?
Not really. The thing about the cluster strategy is that in Cardiff we have over 200 employees, so we can move them around the businesses, and we reward and look after our staff to make sure the culture in the company is right.
Each venue has employee of the month, regular staff get togethers, information goes from the boardroom to the frontliners so everyone feels included, management training programmes so employees can build a career. It’s important for the employees to know that there’s development within the company.
Have you experienced supply chain issues?
We haven’t had any supply chain issues, we have a great relationship with our supplies. We also have flexibility which makes it easier to change if we need to. We do a lot of the building in the Nordic’s, and products are flexible.
Will you want to expand Proud Mary’s presence?
We have another site that we have earmarked for the concept, in Swansea. Really, we have four key concepts that we want to look at for all major cities.
This isn’t just a Proud Mary for Cardiff, this is the first of what we hope will expand to more than 20 in the next few years. We just want to find the right property and location.
