Tell me More

Team work and hard work have made the More Cafe brand so successful in Dubai that it is now set for regional expansion.

The founders of More Café and owners of MIF Inc., Wouter and Marijke Lap, reveal to Louise Oakley why 2011 will signal the start of the restaurant brand’s regional expansion.

More Café is a much-loved Dubai institution, known for its striking purple theme, hanging tables, all encompassing menu and fresh, homemade bread. Its growth from one lonely Garhoud restaurant in 2002 to eight outlets by the end of 2010 is testament to its popularity — and also to the shrewd and savvy approach of the self-confessed foodies behind the brand.

Many in the industry are familiar with Wouter and Marijke Lap, made famous in the F&B world by the success of More Café and arguably the most happily married couple in the sector, but there is a lot more to their business empire than a handful of restaurants — and this is what I was keen to find out more about.

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Rather appropriately, I met the Laps at the original More Café in Garhoud, a restaurant they still own and operate today, along with outlets at Al Murooj Rotana and the Gold and Diamond Park.

The remaining outlets — at Mall of Emirates, Dubai Mall, Dubai International Financial Centre, Festival City and Mirdif City Centre — are run by Al Tayer Group, the GCC-wide franchisee for More Café.

It is obvious the pair are still fond of the Garhoud outlet, which has very much proved the model for the succeeding restaurants in terms of both the look and feel.

Marike Lap-Heijer — the most talkative of the pair — reminisces: “We said we wanted to come up with something that would at least be trendy or contemporary for a longer period — where the older its gets, the more comfortable it gets”.

Her husband, she continues, was especially keen to have a restaurant that was comfortable for men as well as women.

“Wouter said ‘I want a restaurant that is masculine’. At that stage, in 2002 there were a lot of coffee shops around which were really aimed at the female market, especially in Jumeirah; they were all very nice and fluffy with little chairs and little tables and tea cups with ears and he said ‘I cant sit there, I don’t feel comfortable there’.

“So we said we wanted something where businessmen will come; that’s why we have the tables very far apart compared to a lot of other coffee shops; inside and outside, we really keep the space.

If you look at your revenue per square metre, it might not be the cleverest thing to do when you do your calculations, but at the end of the day you win, because people feel more comfortable when they’re not close with somebody who can overhear the conversation. That is why we get people all day — it’s worked out very well.”

The model has been very successful, but its demand for space means it’s a difficult one to roll out, location being paramount.

“More needs a lot of space, so it’s not like a restaurant that you can put in the corner of a mall in a nice 100m² space — you need a minimum of 500m²,” says Lap-Heijer.

This is where Al Tayer comes in. The group has opened three More Cafés during the past 12 months and after two and half years on board, is more than familiar with the specific requirements of More.

“Al Tayer wanted to start in Dubai to make sure we get it right — [they said] you are here so we can work together very closely and once we feel 100% comfortable and we know what we are doing, then we will expand. So now we are there; I think we are happy at the moment with the number of outlets we have, so as of this year we’ll expand outside of Dubai,” says Lap-Heijer.

Where exactly depends on Al Tayer, but Lap-Heijer says Abu Dhabi would be the logical choice. The group is also looking at sites in Qatar and will expand to other GCC countries.

This is not all though — Lap-Heijer says they have received interest in More from Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, not to mention further afield.

“We’ve had interest even from London — there are so many people coming through Dubai. We’ve had interest from Russia, Australia and Singapore, so it’s interesting,” reveals Lap-Heijer, adding that More could definitely end up as a global brand.

“We’d need to find a partner who knows what they’re doing. You can’t have a franchise partner who is not in the restaurant or hotel business for this particular concept,” she says.