London, 15 October 2026 — By Nick Staunton
In 1995, restaurateur Nick Jones opened a members’ club in the rooms above Café Bohème, his restaurant on Greek Street in Soho. Thirty-one years later, Soho House has 46 houses around the world, more than 200,000 members, and went private in January in a $2.7bn deal backed by billionaire Ron Burkle, the hotel group MCR and the actor Ashton Kutcher. The surprise is that a brand this famous has never strung together a full year of positive free cash flow as a public company. It is part of a wider boom in people paying thousands just to get into a room.
For European business, Soho House is a test of a fashionable idea: that you can build a global company on belonging rather than on beds or meals. It started in London, its heartland is still Europe, and its next wave of openings includes Milan, Madrid and Lisbon. Whether the model works matters well beyond Greek Street.
The Idea: No Suits, No Bankers
Jones saw a gap. London’s old gentlemen’s clubs were stuffy and rich, and nowhere catered for the people actually making the city’s films, adverts, music and magazines. So he built a club for them. Membership was judged on creativity, not on net worth or job title, and the unwritten rule was that suits and bankers need not apply.
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SubscribeIt worked because exclusivity sold itself. Turning away money made the club more desirable, and people with influence wanted in. The house became a place to be seen, to do deals and to stay out late with people like yourself.
Expansion followed slowly at first. Babington House, a country retreat in Somerset, opened in 1998. West Hollywood came in 2010, Chicago in 2014, and Soho Farmhouse in the Oxfordshire countryside in 2015, a cabin-filled estate that became the brand’s most photographed property.
Jones never had the capital to grow on his own, so he sold control early. In 2008 he sold 80% to restaurant tycoon Richard Caring for £105m. In 2012 Burkle’s investment firm, Yucaipa, bought 60% for £250m, leaving Jones with 10% and Caring with 30%.
In July 2021 the company floated in New York under the name Membership Collective Group, raising $470m at $14 a share. The timing looked perfect: lockdowns had ended and people were desperate to meet again. It did not last. By March 2024 the shares had fallen nearly 60%, and investors had grown tired of a company that kept growing but kept losing money.
So the owners took it private again. In August 2025 a group led by MCR agreed to pay $9 a share, well below the flotation price, valuing the business at $2.7bn. The deal nearly collapsed in January when MCR said it could not fund its full $200m commitment. It was rescued at the last minute: MCR chief executive Tyler Morse put in $50m through his own vehicle, MCR added another $50m, Apollo’s equity commitment was cut, and an unsecured notes facility from Apollo and Goldman Sachs was enlarged from $150m to $220m. The deal closed on 29 January.
Today Jones, Burkle and Yucaipa are reported to hold about 75%. Caring and Goldman Sachs rolled over most of their shares. Kutcher put in new money and joined the board, and Andrew Carnie remains chief executive. It is a classic take-private by deep-pocketed American backers, with control kept by insiders.
How It Makes Money
Soho House earns money in three ways, and the 2024 results, its last full year as a public company, show the split clearly. Total revenue was $1.2bn.
Membership fees brought in $418m, up 17%. This is the best part of the business. Members pay roughly $2,000 a year for one house, rising to about $6,000 for access to every house worldwide. That money arrives in advance and repeats every year, whether or not members turn up.
In-house spending, on food, drink and rooms, brought in $481.6m. This was flat on the year. It is the biggest income stream but also the most expensive to run, because it needs kitchens, bars and staff.
Other revenue, from hotels it manages, its Soho Home furniture line and other ventures, brought in $304.2m.
The economics are simple. Membership fees are close to pure profit once a house is full, and the restaurant and bar spending pays for the staff. The brand lets it charge for access to a building, not just for what members consume inside it.
Does It Own Its Buildings?
Mostly, no. Soho House rents most of its houses. Its 2021 flotation documents made the case that the brand raises the value of the buildings and streets around it. That, it argued, lets it negotiate favourable leases and win larger fit-out contributions from landlords, so it can grow without spending as much of its own money.
That is clever in good times. Landlords help pay for the expensive refits, and Soho House avoids tying up hundreds of millions in property. But leases are long-term commitments that must be paid whatever happens. When a house is quiet, the rent still falls due.
Why the Profits Are Hard to Find
Here lies the tension. In 2024 Soho House made adjusted earnings before interest, tax and other charges of $131.9m, up 14%. But on a statutory basis it lost $163m, and net debt rose to $672.6m. Rent, interest, depreciation and the cost of opening new houses ate the operating gains.
The membership model also has a ceiling. Too many members ruin the product. In 2024 the company stopped taking new members in London, New York and Los Angeles because its busiest houses were overcrowded. It is an odd problem for a growth company: its most valuable asset is the feeling that not everyone can get in.
Then there is debt. The rescue deal added borrowing, and money is far dearer than when Soho House floated. The global bond sell-off has pushed up the cost of refinancing for every heavily indebted company, and Soho House is no exception. Recent results were mixed: net income of $33m in the first half of 2025, followed by a loss of about $19m in the third quarter.
How It Is Going Now
Out of the public eye, the company is spending again. Tokyo, billed as its 50th house, was slated for this spring in Minami-Aoyama. A Flatiron house, its largest in New York, is under way, along with Los Cabos in Mexico, Milan, Madrid, Lisbon and a second Soho Farmhouse in Tuscany. Its flagship New York house and Miami beach house are being fully renovated, and an AI concierge is coming to its app.
Membership still grows, and the brand still pulls. But members increasingly complain that the clubs feel crowded and less special than they did. Every new house brings in fees, but each one also makes the network a little less exclusive.
The Call
Soho House is a superb brand stuck with an awkward business. The membership fees are excellent money. The restaurants, hotels and leases around them are a hard and costly way to collect it.
Going private was the right move. Quarterly scrutiny did not suit a company that needs years to fill each new house. But private ownership does not change the arithmetic. Burkle and his partners now need to prove that Soho House can grow without diluting the very thing members pay for. My bet is that the smart money is on fewer, fuller houses and higher fees, not on another 50 clubs.
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