WatchHouse targets rapid transatlantic expansion after record 2025 revenues
WatchHouse said 2025 was a defining year, with record revenues and stronger store margins as it pushes to nearly quadruple its estate across London, New York and beyond.
WatchHouse is trying to prove that a premium London coffee brand can cross the Atlantic without losing the discipline that made it work at home. The specialty group said 2025 was a defining year, pointing to record revenues and stronger store-level profitability, while setting a goal to nearly quadruple its global store network over the next three years. For a brand built on higher-end service and carefully designed Houses, the real test is whether that model can scale in New York fast enough to matter.
The company’s story still begins in Bermondsey. WatchHouse was founded in 2014 and says its first House on Bermondsey Street became both the namesake and the starting point for its Modern Coffee ambition. Today, the group says it has grown to 20 Houses across London, Bath and New York. Its website also says it is brewing daily across London, New York and Dubai, while its UK locations page lists 19 Houses and its U.S. page lists 17, a sign of an estate that is still moving quickly as new sites open and launch plans change.
That pace is most visible in New York. WatchHouse opened its first U.S. House at 660 Fifth Avenue in 2024, then added a Park Avenue South location. Its locations pages now show Park Avenue South as coming soon at 287 Park Ave South, while London continues to grow too, including a site at Millennium Bridge. Farther afield, WatchHouse is also developing new Houses in Abu Dhabi, including Saadiyat Grove and The Arcades at Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club. The expansion reads less like a one-off U.S. experiment and more like an attempt to build a multi-city, transatlantic specialty-coffee platform.
The financial backing is matching the ambition. In January 2026, WatchHouse announced a Series B led by HighPost Capital, with reports putting the round at £10.9 million, or $14.8 million, to accelerate U.S. expansion. The investment follows a run of strong trading. WatchHouse said revenue rose 62% to £15.4 million in the year ending 28 July 2024, while EBITDA increased from £1 million to £1.2 million. It also opened five UK sites in that period, a pace that suggests the business is still adding doors without abandoning margin discipline.
WatchHouse’s 2024 award as Europe’s Best Coffee Shop Chain at the European Coffee & Hospitality Awards sharpened the question even more: can a London-born premium brand export its identity, not just its menu, into one of the world’s most competitive coffee markets. If the answer is yes, Bermondsey could end up looking less like a starting point than the first chapter of a much larger specialty-coffee chain.
Know something we missed? Have a correction or additional information?
Submit a Tip
