Be At One

Exited in 2018

Be At One is the UK’s leading chain of cocktail bars. Steve Locke, Rhys Oldfield and Leigh Miller opened their first Be At One bar in Battersea in 1998, funded by car loans and credit cards.

Today the chain has over 35 bars across the UK, sells more vodka than Hilton Hotels and uses over half of tonne of fresh mint a month for its popular Mojitos.

Be At One’s success is driven by its focus on providing the finest range of cocktails served by the best quality staff – there are currently 190 exotic drinks on the menu and the company invests £5,000 on training each of their bartenders, taking them through a comprehensive nine week training programme.

For the three founders of Be At One, Piper’s investment enabled them to realise some of the value they created but retain a majority stake and have the necessary funding for the next stage of growth.

Our work with the team since investment in 2011 has focused on increasing the number of sites in London and opening 15 new sites outside London.

In addition Piper helped the business to secure further debt facilities to fund the roll out; use customer insights to differentiate and develop the Be At One brand and proposition; refurbish the original estate; and finally to expand the management team to support the rollout of bars.