89,000 people worldwide are on the waiting list for private members’ social club chain Soho House. They are willing to pay thousands of dollars a year to join the close to 170,000 members as of the end of 2022 (up 38.4% from 2021), in 42 houses around the world. And yet, when I ask Nick Jones, who founded this empire, what he believes to be the secrets of the prestigious club's success, he says "First of all I’m not sure about success."
We talk in the beautiful backyard of the Israel Soho House on Yefet street in Jaffa, which opened in 2021, attempting to have a conversation over the pleasant background noise of children's giggles coming from the nearby school. The chain also has houses in Rome, Paris, Copenhagen, Mexico City, Hong Kong, three in New York, and more. But Jones still feels insecure. As for the ingredients for success, however, he is prepared to say, "I like looking after people. I like nothing more than a room full of people having a good time and eating and drinking and laughing and connecting with people they might not have met before, and to me that is what Soho House is about".
Jones likes to see the houses as "safe havens" of sorts for the members, a ‘home away from home'. They can spend time there and enjoy a range of activities such as lectures, events, yoga, food, a swimming pool and more. The idea is that the ties forged between the members will create a strong and tight creative community. Does the house in Jaffa simply look like a boutique hotel? To the uninitiated, I believe it does. Of course, every house also has workspaces, but laptops are limited to those areas so that workaholics don't ruin the vibe for everyone else.
Soho House, as I have a feeling Jones too is aware, offers quite an expensive product that is really not for everyone. The company is not willing to disclose the number of members in Israel. Annual membership for the house in Jaffa, for members over 27, costs NIS 8,000. Young members enjoy a discounted annual rate of NIS 2,000. A membership that affords access to all the houses worldwide costs NIS 10,000 for members over 27, and a "mere" NIS 5,000 shekels for young members. US members pay almost $5,000 annually.
It's not cheap, far from it, but Jones dreams of a global presence and insists that Soho House is open to everyone, that it is inclusive and not exclusive as might be expected of a members' club that charges NIS 8,000 for annual membership just for use of the local house. "We are ambitious to be properly global, and at the moment we are probably half-global… but we also are very inclusive as a community so we run lots of fellowship programs, we run mentorship programs, so we really want people from every part of the world and every community and it doesn’t matter where you’re from or what background you’re from or what your financial situation is, there is a place for you at Soho House".
Access to the houses is limited to members only, but members can have up to three guests with them at a time. According to various reports, membership is decided by members' committees, meaning that veteran club members choose the new members. Jones himself insists that what is important to him is the "creative soul", and that background, financial situation, occupation, ethnicity or political opinions are not a barrier to membership. Clubs prohibit disclosure of members' and guests' identity, as well as photography, to protect privacy and probably also to heighten curiosity and mystery. A quick scroll through Instagram reveals that the ban is not strictly enforced everywhere.
"Dyslexia is a gift"
His passion for hospitality began in childhood, but was never any indication of what was to come. Jones, who will be 60 in September, was born to a middle-class family in Cobham, in the heart of Surrey in the English countryside. "I had two older brothers who liked a lot of sport, while I loved going to the supermarket with my mother", he recalls. "Where it was different for me is I was severely dyslexic, so I really struggled at school… My dad was an insurance broker. I didn’t want to go into the family business, to be an insurance broker. I really had a passion, even early, for when my parents had friends round or when I worked in the local sports club, I really enjoyed giving people a good time, creating a platform for people to have a good time, so I really enjoyed hospitality, or catering as I called it then… As a young kid I was fascinated with supermarkets and food and I loved planning out meals. I just felt eating and drinking was something which was never going to be taken away by technology, or now AI, and it just felt like something that I was going to enjoy doing".
Dyslexia, a genetic neurobiological learning disorder, made school a nightmare for young Jones. "I found taking exams or writing essays or learning, remembering stuff, revision, very difficult. 50 years ago a lot of children have had to go through their lives just thinking they are stupid or thick, and it really has done great harm for people when they are labelled like that".
And for you?
"In hindsight, I see dyslexia as a gift because I think you look at the world differently, which is an advantage. Also, complication confuses me, I love everything to be simple, and I think simplification is an art in a way, because people spend their lives overcomplicating because they want to prove something and I like things on one piece of paper, I like bullet points, I like it very simple, and that is how I communicate to people as well".
Jones sensed he would have to start at the very bottom. "It was through my experiences at home and at the local sports club, and also there weren’t a lot of other options because I didn’t have the exam results to go to university, and I felt I had a real passion towards catering which was weird 45 years ago because it really was the lowest job on the ladder. I got a job and spent a year in the kitchen, and a year as a server, and working behind the bar, so I spent a lot of time learning the trade, which was invaluable and I think in a way hospitality is such a good way to develop a person. I didn’t have a big dream. I thought maybe one day I could open a restaurant, but I took my dreams step by step. I was 17 when I started".
This dream did indeed come true, and at the age of 22 Jones opened the restaurant Over the Top, which crashed and burned. To this day that restaurant is etched in his memory as the biggest trauma and failure of his career. "Everything about it was wrong" he now admits with a smile. "The design was wrong, the food was terrible, the service was terrible. I was inexperienced and I didn’t know any better, but it was a great experience. I think failure, and it was a failure, is a journey rather than a finale. And I think people have to make mistakes in life to learn, to make themselves better, and if it’s the end of the journey then that’s a shame".
"I was running out of money, and my last bit of luck was changing one of the restaurants to Café Boheme in 1993 and I did it all very differently. The banks and investors said OK, we will give it one more go and luckily it worked, and even 30 years later it is still as popular as it has ever been."
From a restaurant to a hospitality empire
Jones, having experienced professional success for the first time in his life, was not spending too much time thinking about the future or how to leverage that success. But then something happened. "The landlord of Café Boheme phoned me up and said Nick, the upstairs floor has become available, would you like to take it? I thought what on earth for? I was just getting it right with Café Boheme. However, because I’m a very optimistic person, I went and had a look upstairs, and I felt it couldn’t be a public restaurant, but it might be right for a modern-day version of a private members’ club, which was not a gentlemen’s club, but a place where people with creative souls would come together".
And so in January 1995, the first branch of Soho House opened its doors above Café Boheme. Jones emphasizes that "we only opened it when we had 500 members".
Surely it was not a simple task?
"Right. I was a manager downstairs in Café Boheme so I got to know customers, but I wasn’t from media, or creative industries, or theatre or television. I didn’t know many people so I knocked on people’s doors, I cold-called people. I also put a committee of 25 people together, which was great. Their job was to find 25 members each, from their particular industries and that’s how it started. Those 500 members are still alive, they’re still members and they are very loyal". The 25 committee members received payment or free membership.
So Jones built a global empire from next to nothing. Along the way, he experienced history in the making. For example, in September 2001, he arrived in New York to set up the first house in the Big Apple. He was about to bite into his boiled egg at breakfast when he suddenly heard an awful thud. Four blocks away, American Airlines Flight 11 had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
In contrast, but still in New York, Soho House played a starring role in an episode of "Sex and the City" in a scene where Samantha complains about being on the endless waiting list, and finally sneaks into the pool with the girls. "They contacted us and asked to shoot a scene at Soho House, and we thought it was quite a good idea, and so that’s how it happened, as simple as that" recalls Jones. "It happened 19 years ago, so it had a big impact, Sex and the City then was the biggest show on TV globally and to have a scene in it revolving around Soho House and sneaking in was funny, it was a good scene".
Today Soho House is in a completely different place, with at least one new house a year. However, new and unfamiliar challenges emerge, such as how to maintain the fundamental founding spirit in all 42 houses worldwide. Jones smiles "I have a brilliant team. I usually know quite quickly whether a person is right for the team. I look for nice people, decent people, people who get on with people, people who are kind. Obviously hospitality is a hard business, so I look for people who don’t mind working hard".
Back in 2008 Jones sold 80% of the company to British tycoon Richard Caring. In 2012, 60% of the shares of Soho House were bought by American billionaire Ron Burkle through his investment firm Yucaipa for £250 million. Jones continues to hold 10%, and Caring 30%.
In 2021 Soho House was floated on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $430 million with a market value of $2.8 billion. Burkle remained the controlling shareholder also after the IPO. Since then the value has nosedived to its current value of some $1.3 billion. Soho House recorded a net loss of almost $270 million in 2021 and almost $220 million in 2022. In the first quarter of 2023 the loss shrank to some $16 million.
Jones is quick to explain: "Soho House is rapidly growing and opening new houses every year, and will not be generating losses for much longer. Maybe in the first 2-3 years houses are not profitable, but after that, all our houses will be profitable. To date, over 28 years, we’ve never closed a house". The company expects to have 87 houses worldwide by 2027. There are currently 42. This is an incredible growth rate, making it difficult for Soho House to become profitable despite the high membership fees.
Enjoying handing over the reins
Last year was a pivotal year in Jones’ life. "Both my parents died of cancer, one of pancreatic cancer, and one of lung cancer, and so I was always very aware that cancer was going to be part of my DNA. One of the medical tests I took came back with a variable prostate indicator, so about a year ago I went and got an MRI and when the results came back you could see a very substantial tumor. I had my prostrate taken out in September. A PET scan showed it hadn’t spread, so I am now cancer clean".
How has your life changed?
"It gives you a different perspective. I was CEO before this. I was running around and it was a public company and I wasn’t necessarily the perfect CEO because I’m a hospitality guy, I’m an entrepreneur, I like disrupting things… it just seemed like the perfect time to hand the baton on and go back to doing the things that I started in the first place, like having closer contact with the customers".
After 27 years of intensive work, the lines between his personal and professional life constantly blurred (Jones has four children from two wives), he decided to step down as CEO and hand over the reins to his right-hand man at Soho House, Andrew Carnie. Carnie joined Soho House in 2019 as the company’s Chief Commercial Officer. In 2020 he was promoted to Global President, and replacing Jones as CEO of the chain was the natural next step for him.
For Jones, however, presumably it was not an easy step. "I thought it would be more difficult than it is" he jokes, "but I’ve enjoyed looking at the business through a different perspective, I’ve enjoyed not driving the bus but being on the bus. I thought that I might be tempted to micromanage Andrew, but you should ask him. I think he’s very surprised that I don't do that. It’s my wish that Andrew flourishes, which he is flourishing. I’m always available to him, we speak every day and I’m really enjoying it."
What do you wish yourself for the future?
"I want to travel less because I used to be on a plane every week, and now maybe I go on a plane every 3 weeks which is nice".
Jones has been visiting Israel to meet the local team of 79 employees and the new manager, Jurgita Nefedjevaite, who previously managed the Mykonos house, and has also supported the brand in the London and Berlin houses. She says that her connection to Israelis and to the local culture was instantaneous.
What are your plans for Israel, considering that you arrived here in the midst of rocket fire?
"We landed in Israel in 2021, we like Israel and we want to expand here. We would still like to do a little house in the center of Tel Aviv, we would love to get something on the beach as well, so for us, this is just the start."
Nick Jones (59)
Personal: Second marriage + 4
Professional: Founder and former CEO of Soho House, which operates worldwide private members’ clubs, restaurants, hotels, workspaces and a furniture and homeware chain
Of interest: In 2017 he was awarded a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for his contribution to the hospitality industry.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on May 28, 2023.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2023.