By Nicola Walker
We last spoke with Lauren Runciman and husband Calum in 2019, shortly after they had won the Emerging Entrepreneur award at the Scottish Bar and Pub Awards, but to say a lot has changed since then is an understatement.
There are now three venues in the Giddy Goose brand, they employ around 70 staff, and they are about to open a new concept restaurant, Black Mamba, in Dundee. Plus, there are two new additions to the Runciman clan! I ventured up the east coast to meet Lauren to find out exactly what had been happening over the past few years!
Lauren and Calum opened their first venue in 2017. They had originally moved from Peebles in 2015 so Lauren could study medicine at Dundee University, but as a chef, Calum was keen to open his own place. Lauren tells me “We decided we wanted to open a restaurant, but we needed money to do that. So, we spent a whole summer at food fayres and farmers markets selling sausage rolls and tarts that we made in our house. We used the money we made to open The White Goose, a little bistro café on the waterfront.
“I was still studying medicine at the time and was trying to juggle both. I decided to swap medicine for hospitality. Initially, both Calum and I worked in The White Goose seven days a week to earn enough money to open The Giddy Goose Dundee, which we did in August 2018.
“We called it The Giddy Goose because we wanted to keep the ‘goose’ theme and show it was a sister venue to The White Goose. This time we used the word ‘giddy’ to fit in with the fun, livelier venue concept, which was food led in a quirky but relaxed environment.
“Over time we have adapted to our clientele becoming much more student based due to the University being right across the road. We now call it our flagship venue because it’s still the busiest of our venues by far.”
When they won the Emerging Entrepreneur award, sponsored by Colin Blair of Buzzworks and David Wither of Montpeliers, the prize was mentorship from David and Colin.
Lauren says, “The award was extremely beneficial. David and Colin were really helpful because they gave us so much insight into the industry. You could ask them anything without the fear of them judging you. They helped us make a plan, decide what we wanted to do for the future and how we were going to achieve it. They even shared mistakes that they made when they started out in the industry and how we could troubleshoot these. We were still in contact with them long after the years mentorship had finished, and we know we could still just send them an email and they would help wherever they could.” The two were also on hand to help when Covid hit. But Lauren and Calum didn’t rest on their laurels during the pandemic. They operated as a takeaway and used the time to scout out possible new venues. Says Lauren,
“We found what became The Giddy Goose Forfar in July 2020 and then opened it in April 2021. Once that was up and running, we then opened The Giddy Goose Perth in November 2021. They both came out of lockdown as we got good deals on them.
“We intended to run Perth and Forfar in the same way as Dundee, but we quickly learned that it was a different type of customer. There were no students here, it was all families and working professionals. The venues have similarities because the Giddy Goose is a brand, however we have made alterations to the menus and in the way we run service to cater for the different markets.
“For instance in Forfar, we have just launched a tapas night on Fridays – our Sunday roast boards are also proving a hit. Our customers trust our ideas so it’s a place where we try new things and see what works.” Talking of new things, the couple are about to launch a completely new 60-80 capacity venue in December in the shape of a tapas and cocktail bar, Black Mamba. The unit, which was formerly Tonic, is just down the road from The Giddy Goose Dundee. Lauren says,
“They are close to each other, but they are two such differing concepts that they will not be competing against each other. We’ve completely ripped out and renovated the entire place so it’s unrecognisable to what it was before.
“Although a tapas venue, our theme is not Spanish, the food is going to be from any type of origin. We are looking to alter the theme and menu quarterly, bringing in new influences and flavours, so the customer can always try new things. In line with that, we are doing the same with the cocktail menu. For example, our first menu will have an Asian influence and so the cocktails will match that.”
It will not come as a surprise to anyone to learn that there are plenty of further plans in the pipeline. Lauren says, “Technically, we now have five units. We still have The White Goose, although it is currently closed and has been sitting in limbo since Covid. We have focused on the Giddy Goose venues because they brought in a lot more money because they were bigger venues. However, The White Goose was our first one, so we didn’t want to let it go. We are refurbishing it now and our plan is to relaunch it once Black Mamba is open. It will still be a café bistro, but we want to update it and make it more modern.”
“Our long-term plans are to open more Giddy Goose and Black Mamba venues. Depending on how the concept works in Dundee our vision is to grow the Giddy Goose brand to more towns, and where we have a Giddy Goose we also want to pair it with a Black Mamba nearby. It makes sense in terms of market share and makes our venues easier to manage when they are close together.”
Lauren and Calum have ambitious plans, but its not only their work life that is busy. The couple, who married in 2019, also have two young children. In fact, when they won the Emerging Entrepreneur Award Lauren was pregnant with Arthur who arrived in 2019, since then they have had a daughter, Lucy. Lauren smiles, “I definitely need more hours in the day but somehow we manage between us. We take on different roles each but decide on everything together. We are lucky our relationship just works. We are eager, still very driven and we want to put a real stamp on the industry.
“Every week I still do shifts on the floor to help train staff and see what is happening at the venues first hand. You need to be here and see how your venue is running, what is working, what isn’t working, and if there are any problems. But we always take a Sunday off as that is our family day with the kids. The thing is, I still enjoy it so much. It can be tough and challenging but I wouldn’t have it any other way. If we were doing a 9 to 5 job, we’d just be bored.”
One of the things that has been very important to Lauren and Calum is to grow their business whilst remaining debt free. She tells me, “We lease all our venues. The better we do and the more we earn, the more we can reinvest in other units – it’s the best business model for us. We don’t come from money; we don’t take business loans and we don’t do bank loans. We are still young as well, (Lauren is 26 and Calum 29) obviously we are tied down with businesses, but the thought of being tied down to loans is not for us.”
Lauren is a great ambassador, not just for women, but also young people in the trade. I asked her what challenges she has faced and what advice she would have for young people starting out with the dream of owning their own venue. She says, “I did find that some people didn’t take us as seriously because we were young. Some people we were buying from thought that we were naïve, and we really had to find our feet and say, ‘this is what we want, if you can’t do it, we’ll go elsewhere’. I had similar issues in managing some staff as I found some people don’t like a younger boss. That was one of the biggest challenges for me, but through experience you quickly learn how to manage people.
“My advice to anyone starting out is just do it. Don’t be scared to ask other people for their advice or help. I think there’s a big stigma around this, but people should just share their experiences and where they’ve gone wrong. You shouldn’t be afraid of people judging you, because if you do well, then their opinion doesn’t matter anyway.”
It’s hard for me to picture people underestimating Lauren. She is engaging, bright, ambitious and clearly a very savvy businesswoman. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if I was writing even more about her in the very near future!
