Perry’s hungry to expand after regaining Rockpool

Celebrity chef Neil Perry wants to take his fine dining Rockpool Group into Asia and America and may add new brands.

Restauranteur Neil Perry at his Rockpool Bar and Grill in Sydney. Picture: Jane Dempster.

Celebrity chef Neil Perry wants to take his fine dining Rockpool Group into Asia, America and will consider adding new restaurant brands after securing a deal with the private equity-backed Urban Purveyor Group (UPG) to take back control of the seven premium restaurants he established.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Weekend Australian, the 62-year-old restaurateur also talked about the wages scandals that have rocked local celebrity chef establishments over the past two years and said he was looking forward to returning his personal touch to Rockpool.

Under the split with UPG Perry will take control of the Rockpool Bar and Grills in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth, Rosetta, Spice Temple and R Bar in Crown Melbourne, along with the 11 Bridge Street site in Sydney.

A new firm known as Pacific Concepts will continue to run the Saké Restaurant & Bar, The Cut, Bar Patrón, Fratelli Fresh, El Camino Cantina, The Bavarian, Munich Brauhaus, Beerhaüs, WingHAÜS by Bavarian and The Argyle.

Perry — who retains a longstanding relationship with Qantas, having created menus for the airline since 1997 — described the mature premium end of UPG’s restaurant portfolio, led by the Rockpool brand, as “probably a bit of a handbrake” on its fast-growing casual brands.

“(Rockpool’s) focus is going to be on being the best we can be in our particular venues and looking for organic growth opportunities within Australia and internationally,’’ he said.

“Our focus is looking into Asia where our brand is very well known, where our suppliers can support us. I still think Los Angeles would be a fantastic place for a Rockpool and I wouldn’t discount the opportunity to add another brand or two to the group. It will be very site-specific — finding the right premium site.”

He has previously spoken of plans to open a Rockpool Bar & Grill and a Saké in London along with a Spice Temple in New York.

Perry said he would also potentially examine opportunities to adjust the menu offerings of Rockpool Bar & Grill according to the location of the restaurants.

“For example, we could do more seafood overlooking a beach. I’d also like to look at opening a Spice Temple in Perth,’’ he said.

The Quadrant Private Equity-backed UPG purchased Perry’s restaurants for a reported $65m in late 2016 after Perry’s biggest backer, Californian multi-­millionaire David Doyle, wanted to sell his stake in the business.

“No one is forced into selling their business. I had a business partner who said he wanted to get out of the business — I was happy for him to come out,’’ Perry says.

He retained an equity stake in what became known as the Rockpool Dining Group and became its head of brands and culinary as its portfolio dramatically expanded from 17 venues to more than 85 restaurants and bars in Australia and New Zealand, with a reported revenue of more than $400m.

“It has worked really well on a number of levels but the focus for the business really has been to expand the casual dining brands. As that pillar of the business became significantly larger, some of the synergies that we captured early in the deal started to unwind and the size of the group meant running two pillars, which didn’t make sense,’’ Perry says.

“It was the view of the board that it would be better to split them now and to allow each to take their own path, with Quadrant wanting to focus more on continuing the rollout of the casual side of the business internationally.”

Given his legacy of starting the business 31 years ago, the split was an opportunity for Perry to take back the business he knew best, including 800 staff — some of whom he has known for more than three decades.

There has also been ongoing speculation of tensions between the chef and Rockpool Dining Group CEO Thomas Pash.

In 2018 Quadrant executive chairman Chris Hadley acknowledged they had some “initial creative differences”, which Perry and Pash put down to simply getting to know each other.

The same year Gourmet Traveller magazine claimed they were “mismatched — the passionate food guy and the corporate animal” — before noting they had more in common than met the eye. “In any business relationship you have disagreements but we were not at each other’s throats,’’ Perry says on the issue.

“I was given an opportunity that was fantastic and have enjoyed being a shareholder alongside Quadrant, Thomas and the combined management team.”

Chairman of Pacific and the new Rockpool Group, Quadrant’s Jonathon Pearce, says the separation “will enable both entities to fully focus on their own strategic and ambitious growth plans, unrestricted by the larger group”.

Pash concurs that the business as it stands is “very large and exceptionally diverse, which is challenging”.

“We’re looking forward to putting our casual stamp firmly on Pacific Concepts and giving it our undivided attention, which it needs as we continue to pursue international growth. Rockpool is on a different trajectory, it needs a different approach,’’ he says.

Pash and Perry have previously said they met with a number of potential suitors in Asia and North America last year to discuss a potential sale of the business, but were told by the would-be buyers to push ahead with the international expansion of the casual brands.

Accounts lodged with the corporate regulator show Rockpool Dining Group lost $40.4m last financial year and had borrowings of just under $350m.

But Perry says a single look at the bottom line fails to understand the private equity-backed group’s corporate structure.

“We are absolutely comfortable. The two groups generate significant earnings and cashflow,’’ he says.

Certainly, Perry is keen to return his personal touch to his high-end restaurants.

While the Rockpool Bar & Grill Sydney has maintained two hats in the past three years, its Melbourne sibling and the Sydney and Melbourne Spice Temples all dropped from a two-hat rating to one hat in last year’s Good Food Guide.

“It will be nice to be my own boss again,’’ he says.

“In the minds of people, it was owned by a larger group, so whatever my involvement was it was not perhaps as personal as before. I don’t think we ever dropped the service level but maybe perceptions changed. It is changing that perception and helping people understand I remain very hands-on. Letting people know I am here for the long term.”

Perry has been one of a number of local celebrity chefs linked to cases of staff exploitation and wage underpayments in the industry in recent years.

The most public has been MasterChef judge George Calombaris’s company, followed by the high-end Dinner by Heston Blumenthal restaurant in Melbourne. Both have collapsed after being engulfed in scandals.

Shannon Bennett’s Vue de Monde restaurant has also been accused of forcing staff to work up to 30 hours of unpaid overtime each week.

In October last year, union group Hospo Voice and Maurice Blackburn Lawyers accused the Rockpool Group of underpaying staff $10m, a year after it agreed to back-pay staff $1.6m.

The group denied the allegations and said payments had been made to “current and former employees in relation to the five financial years from June 2013 to June 2017 inclusive”. The claims are now being adjudicated by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Perry acknowledges his name has been tarnished by the scandals but says the group is working hard to correct the errors of the past.

“We have state-of-the-art systems now and everyone is paid to the second,’’ he says.

“If we can be seen as the leading light or a great example of the employer of choice, whatever I had to go through was really worth it. One of the upsides of all of that stuff, if it is happening to us and me, other people pay attention and get their systems in order.”

And he is clear on one key point: “It has never been a business plan of any restaurant I have been in to steal from people.”

He says the restaurant industry has evolved quickly in recent years. Investments from groups like Quadrant have professionalised the sector, driving a “massive step forward” in systems, compliance and conditions and a move away from small operators.

“One of the things about hospitality … is that it is a customer-focused experience. If we don’t have great staff, it is going to be a very short-lived experience,’’ he says.