Minute on the clock: Simon Wright, founder and chair of TGP International

What does TGP offer?

We have our advisory business, which is where we do market studies and brand development, and we work with a lot of the big hotel companies as well as private investors, helping them bring concepts and ideas to life. We have an interior design team, which specialises in F&B and F&B retail design.

And then we have the operations side of the business, which helps with operational project management. If an investor doesn't have a hospitality background or team, we'll do all the pre-opening for them, so that's the site selection, the feasibility studies, recruitment, training, supply chain and pre-opening marketing and then do the handover. If required we'll stay involved afterwards. We can offer a whole suite of services for anyone that wants to get involved in the F&B business.

How are your recent London openings progressing?

We opened 3 Henrietta Street in October with our sister company Game Changers Investments, which is where we invest in chefs and brand owners to help them bring their ideas to life.

We've opened up El Ta'koy with an amazing chef called Luis Pous, which is doing phenomenally well. We also opened a Gentleman Baristas, which we have a small shareholding in as well.

Kimberly Lin, one of our superstars who was with us for three years at Dominique Ansel Bakery as development chef, has opened a concept called Lilly's, an all-day dining café – the desserts are outstanding. And we've got Mark Greenaway, who is in my opinion one of Scotland's best chefs, doing Pivot, an upscale restaurant on the first floor.

What have you got coming up?

In June we'll probably be opening Long Chim with David Thompson, who used to have Nahm, a Michelin-starred restaurant at Como The Halkin.

We have a bomboloni concept called Lena Lu, an Italian doughnut concept from Australia, that's coming in the third quarter this year. We're just starting to look at sites. We've also got a vegan pizza concept called Vegan Dough Co, for which we're doing a bit of site selection. We've also got a really lovely Armenian concept, which we'll be bringing in towards the end of the year.

And then the big one is Alkebulan, the African dining hall, which we launched at Expo 2020 in Dubai. We've just started to look for sites in London. Realistically that's going to be a big project and will probably be first quarter next year. We've got a lot going on and it's going to be an exciting year.

Where are you looking in London?

We've started to put feelers out. It's challenging because we need a relatively large space, about 12,000 to 15,000 sq ft. We would look at something larger, but that's the sweet spot for us. We've not fixed on any particular area.

Who might open there?

In Alkebulan we have three staples through our partner Alexander Smalls: Shoebox Bakery, with Senegalese chef Mame Sow; Chicken Coop; and we'll probably have Sweet Ophelia's, Alexander's Afro-Asian concept as well. We may have a couple of the chefs that were with us in Dubai, so that's Coco Reinarhz, Kiran Jethwa from Kenya and Moos Gbane.

And, of course, we'll be looking to identify local talent. Alkebulan is about social enterprise, so a couple of incubator units will be given to local talent, perhaps from challenging backgrounds, so we can give them the opportunity to turn what might be home cooking into restaurant-style cooking. We will help them develop their ideas and their brands, mentor them on the business side and, hopefully, eventually, if they're successful enough, give them the chance to move to their own bricks and mortar site.

Are there any UK chefs you'd love to sign?

I love what the guys do at Palomar and Barbary, I think that would travel very well. What Ollie Dabbous is doing at Hide would travel very well internationally.