Luvvies’ favourite haunt suffers £34.5m losses
ROMANCE blossomed for Prince Harry and actress Meghan Markle at the Cotswolds ‘Butlins for toffs’, Soho Farmhouse.
But Nick Jones, who owns the A-list retreat as part of his Soho House group of members’ clubs, has a headache as he prepares to expand into Texas and Amsterdam.
This week, the company that runs the group’s European ‘houses’, SHG Acquisition (UK), posted a £34.48 million loss for the year to January 1, 2017, increasing from £11.12 million the previous year.
The group has also completed a £275 million refinancing with debt company Permira.
The accounts say: ‘Soho House & Co has debt, and may incur additional indebtedness, which may negatively affect our business.’
Despite launching in the summer of 2015 with a party attended by David and Samantha Cameron, Soho Farmhouse’s trading has been ‘below expectations’, according to documents filed with West Oxfordshire council last month, with a loss of £5.34 million, after depreciation, for its first year.
The documents, filed by a planning firm acting for Soho Farmhouse, say: ‘Based on the trading performance, the current model is unsustainable on a long-term basis.’
Soho Farmhouse hopes to boost revenue by building 40 extra bedrooms in ten glorified pig sties in a woodland glade, plus 15 further garden rooms. But locals say the pods, to be clad in corrugated iron, look like ‘something from the smart part of Soweto’.
Jones owns 10 per cent of the Soho House business. He is backed by U.S. billionaire Ron Burkle, who owns 60 per cent, and tycoon Richard Caring, who owns 30 per cent. In January, Jones put fees up, saying the clubs are ‘costing more and more’ to run. Full annual membership increased by £250 to £1,650.
A spokesman for Soho House said: ‘We have a clear growth strategy in place and are choosing to invest cash behind our plans to make Soho House the only membership club with Houses all around the world. These figures do not reflect the position of the wider group, where we reported record results in 2016.’