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00:00My name is Kaz, I found Casio Group and the old Red Lounge and yeah, I'm one of the main investors here.
00:13For me, how the bank was and what it's turned out to be now is a massive, massive difference.
00:23As I was saying earlier, if you came and saw the first day when I got the key and what it is now,
00:29you won't recognise it, it's completely different and I have to say we're so proud of the team that worked here.
00:37Callum, Steph, they've done an amazing job. So I'm very proud and that's my role now really to be fair.
00:45When I see my team building venues like this and running it successfully, that was always my goal.
00:52You can't never have zero involvement in restaurants but as I was planning initially, I want to have zero involvement in running the business.
01:01And this is where we are now. I set up the venue, find the location and my team, brilliant team, they run it. So, very proud.
01:11Yeah, because you kind of picked up the keys almost a year in the last January, wasn't it?
01:16We got the keys, I think, December 23rd. It's one of the longest projects.
01:22So how pleased are you in terms of how it's turned out? Is it kind of how you envisioned it when you first thought about taking over the bank?
01:28Well, we had a vision. The ceiling and things like that, we never get interior designers in because we've been doing restaurants for so long now.
01:36We've got a rough idea of how we're going to do it but never like this. The finishing project always looks completely different. So, yeah, it's proud.
01:49And what can the people of Waterlooville expect from the exchange?
01:52Once in date, you know, our background is hospitality. We build restaurants and we build it well.
01:58What they can expect is the quality of the service that we're going to give and the food.
02:03We're not really, with all due respect, a lot of people come and invest in restaurants like building game or whatever it is, the background.
02:11Our background is hospitality. We build restaurants, we run restaurants and we don't copy other people and run it.
02:19We do it and other people copy us. I don't want to sound arrogant but this is how it is.
02:24I'm a chef and I've been working in the kitchen most of my life. So, you know, cooking is in my DNA.
02:31So, we'll be leading in this area, I think. Exchange opening Waterlooville, I think, will give a lot of people the confidence, investors-wise.
02:40They can come and invest with confidence that this area will regenerate.
02:46Yeah, obviously, there's been quite a bit of excitement. There's a lot of interest as well. Lots of people coming through the door.
02:52I know a lot of people in the area. I get a lot of inboxes, messages through my Facebook, social media.
03:00When are we opening? What Steph has done, to be fair, instead of having an opening day, we're having an opening week.
03:07We've got so many people wanting to come to the opening. We can't invite some and not the others.
03:12So, we just thought one week we're going to do a soft launch. So, it gives a chance for everyone to come in and experience the venue.
03:20How excited are you personally to finally get the doors open and have customers coming in?
03:24I'm very excited, to be fair. It would be nice to stop spending money for a start. This is one of our most expensive projects that we touched.
03:31But we're proud of it. For me now, when I first started off, it was always chasing money.
03:40But now I'm chasing success, if you like. If you're proud of something, we are proud of this.
03:47And if we do the business the best we can, run the restaurant with the best quality food and the service, people will come in and money will come.
03:56So, I want to build something that I'm proud of and I think this is it. We're proud of this and we will be providing service and the food.
04:03And I know Steph and Callum will do an amazing job here.
04:06Perfect. And just to confirm, you've got a soft launch this week.
04:09The soft launch starts tonight and we're going to run it until probably next week.
04:15With opening or any businesses, you have teething issues, the chef needs to find the food. Everyone is new here, don't forget.
04:23I've been running restaurants for so long, I've just opened another takeaway and still we're not there yet.
04:28So, it will take a week or two weeks for the staff to get used to things, but we'll get there.
04:34Is it the aim for next Monday for people to just go and wander in?
04:38From next week, we're going to be opening the bookings to the general public. For the moment, it's an invitation only.