YO! Company - YO! People

YO! Co is the wholly owned holding company of Simon Woodroffe that works with others to develop and seed finance YO! ideas and new YO! brands. YO! Co owns equity stakes and collects royalties from its endeavours.

"YO! was always destined to be a retail brand and just happened to be a sushi bar in its first manifestation." (Mark Norton, designer of the original YO! Logo)

The holy grail of retail today is to constantly and never endingly innovate in order to deliver high luxury without the high cost.

Click on the logos at the top of the page below to discover more about the various YO! Co. brands.

	Simon Woodroffe Simon was variously a bus conductor, roadie, stage designer, television executive and ski bum before spending two years creating YO! Sushi with his own limited funds. YO! Sushi opened 22 January 1997 and spawned the way for future YO! projects. For full information about Simon including public speaking and media requests, click here. .
	Robin Rowland Robin joined Whitbread in 1984 as a graduate trainee. In 1988 he joined Diageo to lead Old Orleans’ national rollout from 4 to 24 restaurants by 1992. At this time, Scottish & Newcastle’s acquisition of the business resulted in a move to Regional Director managing 80 outlets. By 1996 the itch to get back to ‘hands on operating’ aged 35, led Robin to move to City Centre Restaurants turning around Nachos and then flying the globe as Group Franchising Director, representing Frankie & Bennies, Caffe Uno & Est Est brands. After a chance meeting with Simon Woodroffe (Founder of YO! Sushi), Robin joined YO! Sushi as Operations Director in July 1999 and took over as CEO in September 2000. In 2003, he led a management buy-out backed by venture capitalist, Primary Capital and in 2008 YO! Sushi operates 30 UK restaurants and 11 overseas with franchise partners. Robin believes the future is orange along with millions of small plates.
	Gerard Greene Gerard worked in, dreamed of and schemed hotels from the age of 13. He travelled the world consulting to others before writing to Simon in 2003 after reading publicity about Simon's plans for YOTEL. A year later he joined the company as Simon's partner in YOTEL. Gerard led the company from the conceptual stage, through feasibility and financing to opening and intends to make YOTEL a household name worldwide.
	Rob Gregory Rob and Simon spent 2004 talking about a mutual desire to build a "spa for everyone". Rob came from the health and fitness background and like Simon had visited spas all over the world and wanted to make them accessible for everybody, not just rich people. Rob and Simon intend to open the first YO! Zone in 2009 /10 in a central London site.
	Nick Tardent Nick came from a general management background first at retail giant HMV, then the Toni&Guy group. He started at YO! as Simon's Personal Assistant, eventually becoming his Business Manager. He now runs the day to day business of YO! Company as well as Simon's public speaking and media appearances.
	Cheri Dowd Cheri trained in catering and has worked for some of the big names in the music business. She works as Simon's Personal Assistant on Houseboat Trafalgar in Chelsea, London.

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