G1 Group is a Scottish hospitality and leisure operator based in Glasgow, Scotland. It is run by its founder Stefan King. The company operates more than 50 venues in cities all over Scotland, most notably in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Their portfolio of venues include restaurants, bars, late night bars, nightclubs, cinemas and hotels. In recent years, the Group has become known for taking a special interest in the purchase and investment in listed buildings, or those with significant historical importance. These include former banks, newspaper headquarters and even a former High Court.
History
The G1 Group's first venue, Club X on Royal Exchange Square in Glasgow, was opened in 1990. In 1999, the Group opened The Corinthian Club in Glasgow, which would become their flagship venue in the city. In 2005, G1 Group branched out into the leased pub business, with the launch of The IONA Pub Partnership. In 2011, the Group moved into the former BBC headquarters in Queen Margaret Drive, which was built in 1869 and had housed BBC Scotland between 1936–2007. The G1 Group expanded into Edinburgh in 2011 after investing almost £30 million in acquiring a number of Edinburgh pubs. In 2017, G1 made their most significant investment to date with the purchase of the iconic Scotsman Hotel on Edinburgh's Northbridge.
Venues
G1 Group have grown in size substantially since being founded in the early 90s. Their most recent investments have been in the Hotel sector, where they have refurbished and relaunched several hotels in Edinburgh which were purchased in 2011 as part of the Festival Inns deal. The Group have also announced plans for further Hotel offers in Aberdeen and St Andrews, with the latter set to be launched as the Group's 2nd Scotsman Hotel.
Controversies
Two-way mirror
The Shimmy Club in Glasgow, which is a G1 Group venue, hit headlines in 2013 after an ill judged design decision meant that patrons could view the hand wash area of the ladies toilets. The city's licensing board forced the venue to close for a week because of the risk of "predatory behaviour" towards young women, then ordered the club to remove the two-way mirror and put its staff through equalities training as a licensing condition.
Disabled access
In 2014, a disabled couple won a discrimination case against G1 Group after they were refused entry from the Polo Lounge, a G1 Group venue. Bouncers did not allow them into the Glasgow venue, which the couple had visited before, because they claimed it had no disabled facilities.
Minimum wage
In 2015, G1 Group was named and shamed for not paying the minimum wage to almost 3,000 workers. The firm illegally underpaid staff by more than £45,000 by making deductions from wages to pay for staff uniforms and training. G1 Group stopped this practice after it was named by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills in a list of companies that failed to pay the minimum wage.
In 2020, during the Coronavirus pandemic, the company sacked hundreds of staff over the phone. Staff members were told a slowdown in trade brought on by the Coronavirus crisis was behind the job losses.
