Up-and-coming pub baron James Sinclair has big plans for his rapidly growing Signature Hospitality, finding a win in American-style sports bars and set to open the group’s 50th venue.
38-year-old Sinclair is chief executive of Signature Hospitality, founded with business partner Brad Harris.
Sinclair lived in the USA for a period in his 20s, and coming to appreciate the States’ culture of sports bars and dining set about building on the concept in Australia. The group has grown to now incorporate three such brands.
The first Sporting Globe opened in Geelong in 2010, and after a slightly rocky start the second followed three years later, bringing TSG to Melbourne’s Fountain Gate.
In 2017 Sinclair acquired the Australian venues and rights for American franchise TGI Friday, which he has since doubled Down Under to 20 venues. Signature pared back the dining outlets to a smaller format catering to 150-200 patrons, and slashed the menu from 78 items down to 38.
Mid-22 the group took on the Varsity chain of 10 venues in Perth, with their college or ‘frat’-themed bars even bigger than The Sporting Globe sites, which typically cater to 300-800 patrons.
US connections came in useful this year when Australia was in the grips of a frozen chip shortage, Sinclair calling on overseas suppliers to ship in a whopping 120 tonnes of chips by container to service the pub empire.
Signature now reports around $250 million in annual revenue, and on the eve of opening its 50th location and 20th Sporting Globe Sinclair says he hopes to reach 100 venues within five to seven years.
The latest TSG comes to the growing north Melbourne suburb of Preston.
The pandemic was another application of innovative thinking, when the group suddenly found great use for its newly-created digital ordering app. In the first two months of lockdowns takeaway sales went from an historic one per cent to more than 30 per cent of prior turnover. Business now back to normal, Signature’s database now counts around 780k patrons and circa 40 per cent of all orders in the venues come in through the technology.
Plans to keep growing continue. Sinclair notes the business of beer and sport keep people coming “rain, hail or shine” to watch the various football codes, American basketball and football during the week and racing on the weekends, fuelling a ‘recession-proof’ basis to the business.
“We’re really fortunate because our business model creates an occasion every weekend through the major games,” he says.
