Insight, Analysis & Strategy
Market Research & Brand Development for the Bar & Drinks Sector
In Brief
Sam Surl is an experienced bar and restaurant operator, as well as a researcher, analyst, and strategist, with a global network of friends and colleagues in the industry.
His research covers the top-end of the industry to mainstream accounts and he is equally comfortable working with bartenders or consumers. He was a director at Sipsmith gin from inception to sale.
He delivers anything from a pithy ‘brand health’ check to detailed ethnographic analysis of consumer in-bar and at-home behaviour.
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References available on request.
In Detail
He is an expert on trade commercialisation strategies and is particularly interested in unpacking the emotional connection that both bartenders and consumers often invest in a spirit brand. He works closely with a number of agencies including Hue and Cry, and Strangehill, as well as working directly for major drinks clients. Sam’s industry insights are credited with the creation of the Reserve Brands Group and the early success of World Class cocktail competition among the bartending community.
Over the last five years, Sam has worked with leading gin, vodkas, rum, and cognac brands, as well as premium beers, a leading Champagne House, and a long-established tea producer. Between 2018 and 2020 he was commissioned to produce a major international study into the return on investment of the most well-established bartender competition where he interviewed almost 300 of the World’s leading bartending community.
In 2021/ 2022 Sam delivered projects for Laphroaig Whisky, Johnnie Walker whisky, Absolut vodka, Hennessy, Heineken Silver, St Germain liqueur, and Molson Coors, as well as a number of smaller brands, including spirit/ non-alcoholic start-ups. Since November 2022 Sam has forged closer links with Trinity McQueen Research and is now able to offer at-scale projects where quantitative data or a larger team of researchers is required.
Sam is part of the team re-opening the Debenham Lion in Suffolk in Summer 2023, where he is working alongside friend and colleague Henry Chevallier Guild of Aspall Cyder.
Biography
Sam Surl graduated from Exeter and Oxford in 1988, and spent one year in South London, as a History teacher, while also working part-time as a waiter for the Maxwell Group of restaurants. However, he was very soon seduced by the bar and restaurant industry and was invited to join the opening team at The Market Bar in Portobello Road as maitre di of the restaurant.
The Market Bar soon became a destination for both diners and drinkers from across London and, on the back of its success, the team opened Beach Blanket Babylon on Ledbury Road. Sam left the team in 1993, joining Como Holdings and working as a manager at the Michelin-starred Albero y Grana restaurant and bar on Sloane Avenue. The group also owned the Met Bar, and it was here that Sam met many friends and colleagues who have gone on to be hugely influential in the industry.
In 1997, Sam opened the Alphabet Bar in Soho, with Spike Marchant and David Paskins, which was shortly followed by Amber Bar on Poland Street. Alphabet Won the Evening Standard Bar of the Year, and both Alphabet and the nearby Lab (co-owned by long-term friend Richard Hargroves) are credited with bringing cocktail culture to the high street.
Alongside his work at Alphabet, Sam trained as a qualitative market researcher with the Susie Fisher Group and was soon able to combine his work as a bar restaurant operator with insight projects for blue-chip spirits companies. Sam was able to provide unique access to a growing group of cocktail bartenders, with whom leading spirit companies had yet to connect.
When Alphabet Ltd was sold in 2003, Sam joined the Rising Star Leisure Group, which he built with Steve Kelly from one to five units within seven years. The group was broken up and sold in 2012 when Steve moved to L.A. During this time, Sam was increasingly in demand for his insights into the growing cocktail industry, and he produced a number of important reports for Diageo, Bacardi, and Pernod Ricard – focussing on insights to help them grow their premium brand portfolio and to connect more intimately with the bartending community. The most significant of these led to the development of the World Class Cocktail Competition ten years ago.
Sam was also an executive director at Albannach on Trafalgar Square from 2003 -2007.
It was Sam’s work in the field of bartender insight, plus his experience as an operator, which led to him being asked to join the board for a new Gin – Sipsmith – in 2008. He was a non-executive director at Sipsmith, until the successful sale to Beam Suntory in 2016.
Since he left Rising Star in 2012, Sam has focussed on the development of his consultancy. He has many clients in the world of blue-chip spirit brands, where his wide-ranging knowledge, skills in brand development, and international bartending connections are highly valued. In the two years, he has worked for Diageo, Bacardi, Pernod Ricard, Laurent Perrier, and Heineken.
Sam is also a shareholder at Coupette Bar in East London, where he has backed his long-standing friend and internationally respected bartender, Chris Moore – who he first met while involved with Albannach. Coupette won the best new international bar at Tales of the Cocktail in 2018.
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