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10 Questions

with Frank Haughton
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By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 14th, 2007 issue

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Frank Haughton, who owns Caffrey's Irish Bar, has had a stake in half a dozen Prague pubs.
Around St. Patrick’s Day, Prague bar and pub owners anticipate droves of thirsty British and Irish customers for the holiday. Frank Haughton, a virtual pioneer of Irish pubs in Prague who owns Caffrey’s Bar on Old Town Square, talks with The Prague Post about what to expect. He also reveals his newest project, which he hopes to develop into a major export-oriented business.
❶ Prague is notorious for British stag parties. Obviously, the March 17 celebrations must be a great business opportunity for you as an Irish bar owner.
The Haughton File
  • Job title: Retailer, owner of Caffrey's Irish Bar, property investor
  • Age: 59
  • Nationality: Irish
  • Education: Rockwell College, Leaving Certificate Honours
  • Previous job: Banker, managing director, stockbrokerage (NCB and CHD Ireland)
  • Family: Married, with three children, the fourth arriving very soon
Everybody in this business has a pretty poor time in January and February. For us, really, St. Patrick’s kind of signifies the start of the next season. Each year, it seems to give some momentum, which starts off the next major tourist season. Soon after St. Patrick’s, you have Easter, and Easter is also a very busy time in Prague. So, by the time you have St. Patrick’s finished and then you have Easter finished, you are really into the main tourist season.
➋ How much do St. Patrick’s Day celebrations boost your revenues?
That particular week, the turnover would be double the usual.
➌ Apart from your businesses, you organize St. Patrick’s Day events. What should we look forward to this year?
We try to use the festival to make connections to the Czech Republic to make sure that we’re not just celebrating St. Patrick’s, but that the Czech people can come along and join St. Patrick’s celebrations. This year, we will have a major concert in the Pilsner brewery. The other thing that we’ve been doing for about five years is that we’ve been running the Czech Republic’s annual oyster-opening championship. The oyster is very synonymous with Ireland. The Czech champion will be sent to the World Championship in Galway later in the year.
➍ Over the years, you’ve become an ambassador for Irish businesses here. Was that your aim when you opened your first Prague pub in 1993?
At the beginning, I wanted to create, through the Irish pubs, a feeling for Ireland. When I opened the first Irish pub in Prague, it was very important that Czech people got welcomed. … Even though a lot of our customers were foreigners, we wanted to be part of the local community. We created a pub which was not intimidating. It was a friendly, easygoing place to come into. You didn’t feel you are in some posh place with some rich foreigners where you didn’t fit in. This was the start of building some bridges between Irish people and Czech people by illustrating to Czech people that we’re welcoming, friendly, open to discussion about life in Ireland, about business. With this, opened the door for Irish people to do business here.
➎ Based on your experience, what are the main concerns of Irish people who do business in the Czech Republic?
When people came here, they felt nervous. They felt nervous about property ownership; they felt nervous about whether they could trust a lawyer, a bank, etc. Because I have done business here myself, they wanted to know my business experience, the problems I have encountered, and they wanted some contacts. People came to me for advice about a lot of these things. This kind of activity started the process of Irish investors coming in … and I will still have maybe 10 people coming in this bar every week who are seeking some advice.
➏ Actually, what made a successful banker in Ireland relocate to Prague 15 years ago?
Well, I had an interbank money brokering company, and I was approached by a stock brokering company to buy out the company. So I had the opportunity to sell and make some money, and I sold the company. Coincidentally at this time, the Irish pub business was developing fairly seriously in Germany. I’d noticed that, I’d read about it, and I thought this was going to be a new business opportunity.
➐ So Prague was not the prime target when you headed out?
I actually started by looking at Germany. And then a friend of mine was opening another business here, and he asked me if I would come and help him. I came here in 1992 and I opened the James Joyce pub in 1993.
➑ At one time, you had six Irish pubs in Prague. Now you own just Caffrey’s. Does that indicate that the time of Irish pubs here is over?
No. In some of the six pubs, I had a partnership. We had worked together for 10 years, and we had a very good relationship. One day, we sat down together and we simply agreed to separate the businesses. Now, I’ve got one pub and I also wanted to take on one more challenge in my life in terms of business, so I wanted to free myself from the pubs to get some spare time to do another project.
➒ Could you be more specific?
I plan to launch a new product for the hotel and leisure industry within the next one or two months. It’ll be eco-lodges that will provide five-star quality accommodation in pagoda-style lodges.
The manufacturing will stay in Prague. I hope the business will work worldwide. I’m counting that I’ll work here with CzechTrade and that we’ll develop the production of these units here. Hopefully, eventually, we’ll have a product which will create a major export for the Czech Republic.
I anticipate that, in the first year, this business will have growth reaching 4 million euros [$5.24 million/110 million Kč]. I would see the potential for this to grow dramatically. I’ll have a show unit available by the end of March.
➓ Is that your last business challenge here?
No. I’m just negotiating to introduce Parisian Property Partners real estate fund to Czech people. My plan is to actually relate to Czech people the success that the Irish have had in investing in property, and to actually invite them to become a part of an Irish consortium. My role here is that I’ll be going to one of the major banks here to negotiate the gearing for the investment so that we would be able to borrow from the local Czech banks. Because, when the investments were first made in France, the plan was to borrow the money from Irish banks, but we actually approached banks in France and found they were actually more competitive than the Irish banks in terms of the margins they wanted. So, we borrowed more effectively in France than in Ireland.

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


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