EXCLUSIVE: The Ned to launch members’ club in the countryside amid aggressive growth plans that echo Soho House
City icon The Ned is set to open a “rural” estate in the UK as part of an aggressive expansion plan, with a first outpost in mainland Europe also in the pipeline.
Group managing director Gareth Banner told Morning Wire the company has three additional “very serious offers with either real estate owners or potential partners” for new international ventures.
The UK site is set to be “a newly created concept” that will “comprise of more than just a hotel and a club.”
Banner says the new property, which is slated to open in 2028 or 2029, diverges from the urban blueprint of the existing clubs, being located in the countryside “within 100 miles of London”. This is sure to draw comparisons with the hugely popular Soho Farmhouse, the Cotswolds-based spin-off of The Ned’s sister company Soho House.
We think this brand is only really getting started. When we find the right site with the right DNA we are aggressive
“To create something from scratch brings with it slightly different challenges,” Banner said of the new venture. “Everything else [we have opened] has been a repurposing or a refurbishment but this is a newly created concept. We think we’re probably three and a half years from opening doors, although there may be a phased approach.”
Banner was bullish about The Ned’s expansion: “We think this brand is only really getting started. We’re not [saying] ‘We’re gonna have five sites in five years’ but we are opportunistic and when we find the right site with the right DNA – and the architecture is a big part of that – I think we are aggressive.”
The move comes amid a boom in demand for private members’ clubs, with younger Millennials and Gen Z spending an increasing amount of their income in the “experience economy”. Soho House now has more than 250,000 members worldwide and London’s famous Groucho Club is set to open a new venue in a Grade II listed Yorkshire estate. New clubs in London include Lighthouse Social in Fulham, The Arding Rooms in Clapham and NEXUS Club in South Kensington, founded by a consortium including Tiger Woods and Justin Timberlake.
London and New York are seen as the traditional heartlands of the private members’ club but cities including Paris, Los Angeles and Ibiza have become hotspots for the new wave of ventures appealing to younger generations. International wealth hubs including Dubai are also experiencing a members’ club boom and would an obvious choice for expansion for a company like The Ned.
The brainchild of Soho House founder Nick Jones, The Ned is owned by US billionaire Ron Burkle, who is also a major shareholder in publicly listed Soho House, although the two are separate entities.
The Ned, which opened in 2017 in the former Midland Bank headquarters in the Square Mile, features 10 restaurants, 12 bars and 250 hotel rooms, with exclusive areas for members, who pay around £4,000 a year.
The Ned NoMad opened in Manhattan in the summer of 2022, followed later that year by The Ned Doha. Both are members’ clubs and hotels that incorporate many of the same F&B offerings as the London original. In February this year The Ned opened a club-only outpost in Washington DC on the upper levels of The Walker Building, which has been a hit with the city’s political elite.
Jones founded Soho House in 1995, selling 80 per cent of the business to Richard Caring in 2008. Burkle acquired a 60 per cent stake in 2012, with Jones retaining 10 per cent and Caring 30 per cent.