Global Point Family will invest $100 million in the restaurant business

The Global Point Family group of companies, which operates four restaurants in St. Petersburg, is investing $100 million in opening 200 establishments throughout Russia over three to four years. In December 2011, the company launched two restaurant projects in Moscow, and in 2012 it plans to enter the restaurant market in New York. Market experts believe that the restaurateur is promoting interesting restaurant concepts on the market that can be popular both in Russia and abroad.

The Global Point Family group of companies, founded in St. Petersburg, manages four restaurant projects in the city: “Happiness”, “22.13”, “Barbaresco”, “Soho Lounge”. At the beginning of December 2011, the company will open two establishments in Moscow: the restaurant "Happiness" and the bar "Barry Bar".

Co-owner of Global Point Family Igor Belyavsky said that in 2011 it was decided to turn the Shchastye restaurant into an entire chain with a single design, concept, and interior design. In parallel with the chain of bars and restaurants, the company will launch a chain of confectionery shops under the same brand “Happiness”. Experts in the public catering market point out that during the crisis, many chains discredited themselves by reducing product quality in the pursuit of lower costs, and now, from the point of view of the chain format, the confectionery market is very attractive.

During 2012, Global Point Family plans to open at least 10 confectionery shops (five each in St. Petersburg and Moscow) and five Happiness restaurants (two in St. Petersburg and three in Moscow). The possibility of development through a franchising scheme is also being considered.

For further development of the network, the company is considering million-plus cities in Russia, as well as Kyiv and New York. Investments in opening 200 “Happiness” establishments over three to four years in Russia amount to $100 million. To implement the project, the company will use both its own and borrowed funds.

According to the general manager of the bar-restaurant "Schastye" Anastasia Reshetnikova, the Moscow restaurant "Schastye" will differ from the St. Petersburg one in that it will have a counter with sweets, but otherwise the concept will remain the same. In addition, in 2012 the company intends to open “22.13” in Moscow and New York. Investments in each facility amount to $1-2 million.

The Global Point Family group of companies combines two business areas: the restaurant business and Global Point Marketing, which provides services in the field of marketing communications, which includes several advertising agencies, including Global Point Communication Agency. Global Point Communication Agency has offices in Moscow, St. Petersburg, New York, Hamburg. In 2012, the company intends to open an office in China. The owners are Igor Belyavsky, Irina Parfenova, Alexander Umansky, Stanislav Krutitsky. The turnover of Global Point Communication Agency in 2010, according to the company, was approximately $33 million.

Marketer and owner of the cafe “17-19” Sergei Slavinsky is convinced that almost every restaurateur has plans to open his own establishment in New York: “New York is a culinary Mecca. The high culture of eating out makes this market constantly expanding, therefore, interesting for the restaurant business. A number of Russian restaurateurs have experience opening establishments abroad, some of them are successful. For example, Goodwin in London combined two formats of establishments in one place - for drinking and for food, this turned out to be in demand. "As I said earlier about the MariVanna Ginza Project restaurant in New York, sausages cannot cost twenty dollars."

“Generally speaking, the experience is well exported, and in New York the staff and service will no longer be Russian at all, the search for products and ingredients whose quality is better than domestic ones will also be easier,” says Mr. Slavinsky. — Restaurant business at Global Point Family is at a good level, they are a worthy alternative to Ginza Project. As long as they don’t replicate their establishments, come up with something original, stick to their line of not pretentious but decent establishments, they will develop well. Of course, there are certain problems with the menu and assortment. , but I am now seeing similar problems with almost all players in the market. As for plans to launch establishments in Moscow, I can say that, of course, there is competition there, but the market is still not formed. Muscovites eat out more often than St. Petersburg residents. and the difference in income has an effect, so the capital’s market is not simpler than St. Petersburg’s, but more dynamic.”

The Ginza Project was unable to comment on Kommersant's request. Co-owner of the Probka restaurant group, Aram Mnatsakanov, is skeptical about Global Point Family’s plans to open 200 restaurants in three to four years: “For me, this approach to the restaurant business is mysterious: it’s more of a business related to marketing than to restaurants and cuisine.”

Yulia Chayun, Ksenia Shamakina

And you will have "Happiness"