Groucho Club
The Groucho Club is based in the Soho area of London, where it was founded in 1985. Its members are prominent in areas such as film, art, music and politics. As the original arts members’ club, the Groucho Club has a high-quality and loyal membership base that offers a resilient business model.
Following our investment we significantly improved the club. This included introducing a new CEO and investing substantially in the club, including a major refurbishment of all the bedrooms, modernisation of the events spaces and dining room and the addition of a terrace and screening room. During Graphite’s ownership the club was successfully reinvigorated and grew visitors to an all time high.
Key Business Achievements
Substantially improved its offering
Grew its membership base by 20% to 4,500
Increased EBITDA by 69% over the 6 years prior to exit
Launched a variety of popular ‘pop up clubs’ in Rio de Janeiro (the Olympics), Ibiza and Hays Literary Festival
3,600
Members from the Arts and Media
Business Exit
In 2015 Graphite sold Groucho Club to a group of investors including Alcuin Capital and Isfield in a transaction which valued the business at £28.0m. The sale represented a multiple of 1.2 times the cost of the Graphite investment. Graphite continue to manage a minority shareholding held by the Enterprise Trust.