Hospitality company Henfox is investing heavily in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. In the past 15 months it has acquired six sites in and around the town, the latest of which has launched as deli and fine wine shop Howell & Marsden.
Operations manager Rhys Powell explains: “Over the past 10-20 years lots of businesses in the area have come and gone and there’s not the buzz there used to be.
“At Henfox we are reinvesting with the intention of bringing the area back to life; to save pubs, restaurants and hospitality businesses. Rather than them becoming houses, flats or even offices, we want to keep that hospitality vibe, because that’s what’s going to bring people back to the area.
“Four of the sites are in the small market town of Ashbourne and [in addition to Howell & Marsden] they include a café, a pub and a fine dining restaurant [The Machine]. We also have two high-volume pubs about 10 minutes outside of Ashbourne.”
All the sites Henfox has invested in are listed and, where possible, the company has drawn on any pertinent historical details to brand the new businesses. The deli and wine shop inherited its name from John Howell and Thomas Marsden, whose wine merchant and grocery business traded nearby in the 1800s.
“If we’ve not inherited a name, we look back at previous names of hospitality businesses that have been going for hundreds of years before, so it’s a nod to the history of the area and the community,” says Powell.
As the business continues to grow Powell is confident that Henfox’s fine wine element will spread beyond Howell & Marsden and The Machine to include the pubs. Currently a local wholesaler is going beyond its usual portfolio to supply the business with the wines Powell is hand-picking, but in time he is likely to extend his supplier base.
“At Howell & Marsden, the wine side is going down extremely well,” he says. “People tend to be buying a few [food]products, and then the team are pairing up a wine to go with that. The wine range will evolve every two weeks or so – we’re always bringing in something new.
“We like to see things grow and you never know, our next site could just be a wine bar. There’s definitely the appetite for it.”
Henfox is pausing further expansion while it “stabilises”, but estimates that its footprint will expand by two or three sites a year.