Two Blackburn brothers who founded a group of high-end Chinese restaurants have set their sights on international expansion after bouncing back from the "traumatic" Covid-19 pandemic.
Adam and Drew Jones opened the doors of their first Tattu restaurant in Manchester's Spinningfields in 2015 and have since launched in Leeds, Birmingham, Edinburgh and London.
The pair have now vowed to not open a new Tattu in the UK, saying doing so would dilute the brand and make it more like a commercial chain.
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Instead, they have targeted Dubai and Saudi Arabia as possible destinations for Tattu's first international offering, with the US also forming part of the long-term plan.
In their first sit-down interview since starting Tattu seven years ago, the brothers revealed how they went from differing career paths, running a company in southern Spain through to taking over a closed pub in Liverpool and ending up heading a restaurant business that employs more than 500 people.
They also explain their plans to open two new restaurants in Manchester over the next year, employing 200 people between them, as well as why they are not "ashamed" of talking about how their dad helped them get started.
Adam and Drew Jones had originally been walking down very different career paths. Adam had embarked on a legal career while Drew went to university to study event management.
But the pair wanted for something different and Adam went off to run a VIP concierge business in the south of Spain.
"It worked with all the best clubs and restaurants in the region and it gave us both an understanding of the industry and how brands that were really successful wanted to market", Adam said.
"That was very seasonal and therefore it didn't have much longevity and was not conducive to having a family because of spending six months in Spain."
The brothers then came across a chance to take over a closed pub in Liverpool's Lark Lane while the brewery prepared to refurbish it.
"Negresco was our first project together. They just wanted someone to open the doors until then so it was a really unique opportunity for us.
"It was like Fawlty Towers as we were doing every type of job and there wasn't much of a client base as it had been closed.
"We put on some events that turned out to be quite successful . "It was really hard but it gave us an insight into the industry."
It was at this time that the brothers started to come up with the concept for what would become Tattu.
On how they created the brand, and why it has taken them so long to speak together publicly, Adam said: "We felt that the strength of the brand was critical to success in this sector. The inspiration we took when we were creating Tattu was looking at brands that told a really strong story.
"We thought that the identity behind Tattu, the body art that inspired it and the freedom of expression and individuality was so powerful we didn't really want to mix it up with our personal story.
"Tattu is a really strong story in itself and we didn't want to tell two stories.
"Even though there are elements of our brand that others have started to replicate, we still have a very unique identity.
"'Permanently unique' was a tagline that we started with because of the permanence of body art and it's always been our sole focus.
"We will innovate, we want to keep an independent approach to business because we want to be able to move quickly, adapt to trends and reinvent ourselves constantly. That has helped us stay nimble and stay at the forefront.
"Each of our restaurants is different and tells a new story each time. Starting fresh every time is way more difficult than having the same concept in every location.
"We start with a blank slate each time and we want each restaurant to belong to the cities they are in.
"Both of us have a passion for body art and one of the main reasons why I moved away from a legal career was because I was passionate about that then and I would not have been able to follow that passion then."
Spinningfields isn't exactly the cheapest place for a fledging restaurant to open its first location, however.
The brothers knew they were going to be taking a risk, but said they felt confident in their brand that it would become a success.
Adam said: "We knew it was going to be a premium product and have a high price point.
"Spinningfields at that time, for us, was the safest bet. The unit had been empty for seven years before we took it on.
"Everyone said that we were incredibly naive because they all said it was too hidden and hard to locate if you didn't know where it was.
"But today 90% of our guests have pre-booked; we're not a walk-in place. We're four weeks out at the weekend because we have become a destination."
Drew added: "It's nice to know that people are coming for you and are not just stumbling across you or picking you out of an option of five.
"It takes a little bit longer to build that initially but once it happened it's much better."
Instead of having to pitch their business plan to a range of banks, private equity firms or angel investors, it was their father who backed the new restaurant, something the brothers do not shy away from.
"We were aware of the risks but it was a family investment. We put our own money in and our father helped us get started", Adam said.
"There's a taboo around that sometimes and people can be uncomfortable about talking about it.
"We could have gone to a bank or angel investors. We had just a strong business plan that we would have been able to raise the investment but it would have meant that we would have had a much smaller share.
"Our dad was actually helping us with the business plan, putting us in touch with banks and people we could speak to. I think along the journey he realised how good it was as well and he started to think that we should try and do this as a family.
"That was a big risk but we have paid that back so quickly. It means that today Drew and I still own the business 100% which is really rare."
While the business has grown rapidly over the last seven years, it was not immune to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company's turnover fell from £13.8m in 2019 to £8.1m in 2020 while pre-tax profits were slashed from £1.7m to £4,112.
However, the business rebounded strongly in 2021, achieving a turnover of £14.5m and posting profits of £2.7m. Its restaurants traded for less than eight months during that year, compared to six months in 2020.
Adam said: ""We've been going for seven years now and been through some really turbulent times with Covid. For anyone in this industry that was traumatic; that's the best word to use.
"Now going through this economic climate, seven years we've been in hospitality have been the worst seven years since the Second World War.
"We've reinvested close to £20m back into the business ourselves and kept on gambling on ourselves and we've built a business that now employs over 500 people.
"Covid scared us and could have scared us off that strategy because at some point you've got to make yourselves secure but we had to make sure that our investment was protected."
Drew added: "For the first few weeks of Covid we thought that this could be it for us."
The company went into the pandemic with no debt but had to fall back on Government support and furlough money to remain trading and to hold off making any redundancies.
Adam Added: "We went into Covid debt free and very few businesses did. I think that was comforting that we knew that we didn't have any debt and that would help.
"But for the first few weeks we just didn't know, until the first support measures were announced. Not one business would have survived without the support measures.
"It was incredibly hard not to cut staff because we were losing up to £400,000 a month, with the support measures.
"We borrowed CBILs, which were an absolute lifesaver to see us through the pandemic.
"Coming out the other side though, the business rebounded so strongly that it allowed us to do London, which was always the dream to get to five sites in the UK."
But having rebounded from the pandemic, the business is now having to contend with the cost-of-living crisis and other woes hitting the UK economy.
Adam, said: "Sales have gone up but so have costs, dramatically. We're staring at energy increases of three and a half times what we were paying beforehand, and that's with the Government support. We'll be paying more than triple our rent in electricity.
"However we're in a fortunate position tradewise. Tattu is still trading incredibly strongly and I think a lot of the decisions that we made through Covid have led to that.
"We were smart with what we did but doubling down by employing a finance director and then a managing director, replacing me. They both have a huge amount of experience in the industry that we did not have.
"We've got very stable trading sites now. We're an occasional concept and we attract a demographic that comes in for a reason, be it a birthday or an anniversary.
"I believe that area of the industry is a bit more insulated because if you're going to sacrifice something, it's not going to be your birthday.
"That then puts a huge amount of pressure on our business to deliver. When you're constantly fighting rising costs and having to stabilise that, we're very aware that it's a big responsibility."
Now that Tattu has opened its fifth UK site in London, the brothers have vowed to not expand the brand any more domestically and instead look overseas.
They are preparing to travel to Dubai and Saudi Arabia next month for talks about bringing the brand to the Middle East. The US has also been talked about as a long-term goal.
On why they are refusing to open another Tattu in the UK, Adam said: "Tattu is not a chain. We would make more money and become more commercial if we did but that's not the message.
"The idea was we would create a boutique concept and that every restaurant would have its own identity and it would start to become unique.
"We feel that Manchester is an institution and we want Leeds, Edinburgh and now London to be the same. That's going to take time."
The pair are considering a joint venture to launch internationally and are weighing options for outside investment. The talks come after there was similar interest before the pandemic and earlier this year.
While the geographical expansion of Tattu in the UK may have ended, the brothers are still planning on opening two new restaurants in Manchester over the next year.
Fenix will be a new high-end 'Greek fusion' restaurant and is set to open in the new 'Enterprise City' area of Manchester city centre.
The other, the details of which are currently still under wraps, will be located in the former Carluccio's site in Hardman Street.
Together, they are expected to employ 200 people.
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