Soho House founder: ‘If we were desperate for cash we’d let in our 50,000 waiting list’
Nick Jones, founder of Soho House, has said if the business needed more money post-pandemic, it would let in its “huge” waiting list of 50,000 people.
Speaking in an interview with the Telegraph, Jones was confident Soho House customers would return to the private members club when they could, and if the business needed extra cash, it had plenty of people wanting to be a part of the scene.
“Once everything switches back on and there is light at the end of the tunnel all those worries about ‘is there too much debt against the profit’ will go away,” he said.
“If we were desperate for cash, we would let in our huge waiting lists, you could just go straight to that and let them in. We have about 50,000 people on our waiting lists.”
Like other hospitality businesses, the Covid-19 crisis has been tough for Soho House. The club bid goodbye to 1,000 of its 8,000 global staff, has cut ties with its suppliers and asked its landlords for rent holidays.
Soho House has also made use of the furlough scheme and $22m (£16.5m) in crisis loans backed by the US government.
“We have very good relationships with all our landlords, I’ve known them all and every deal I’ve done has always been a personal deal,” he told the Telegraph.
“But that doesn’t mean we have paid everyone. We didn’t refuse to pay either. We sat down and negotiated deferment or some rent-free months. We’re pretty up to date.”