The restaurateur

Experienced chef Alex Scrimgeour sold his successful restaurant in Los Angeles and now wants to replicate his achievements back home ­ at a pub.

"My wife and I just had our first child so it was a good time to come back," he explains. "I'm personally looking to find a pub that has weak food sales and potential to grow the food side."

The 31-year-old has an impressive background in the restaurant trade, having worked at several restaurants during his 10 years in the US, including his own, called Alex, in LA.

So why choose a pub? He says he hasn't ruled out running a restaurant again but explains: "The thing about restaurants is, they are more of a gamble. It can be hard to succeed without risking a large amount of capital. More often than not [a pub] has got turnover we can rely on and we can change the business slowly, and not have to rely on a big public-relations exercise."

He is looking for pubs not too far from his home in Fulham and has so far viewed two properties in Hammersmith. He would consider somewhere outside London, though ­ maybe near his parents' home in Hampshire.

Scrimgeour trained as an accountant before becoming a chef, and said he is aware of all the legal and contractual issues that can arise when running a business, so will take advice before signing anything.

He explains that he is looking for a pub with existing sales of between £200,000 and £400,000 a year. "It's important to see what the existing history is with the sales," he adds. "And we have to look at the ratio of wet to dry sales."

Scrimgeour's focus is on food, and he says that being tied to S&NPE on some drinks will pose few problems. "If it's an attractive pub and the range of [drink] products is terrible, that's not the most important thing for me. I'm not looking to develop that necessarily; it's a by-product of the food side.

"What's important is wine and we are not tied to the wine by S&N. On the beer front, I don't think it makes much difference. As long as the product is good, that's fine."