of course, of course in secure cargoes. we are working with a network of companies that ship artworks around the world. that s what we do. you mentioned china and we know that christie s is the and correct me if i m wrong here only international auction house authorised to sell on the mainland. now, we know china finally is pretty much opening up but during all of those lockdowns, when it had that zero covid mentality policy, that must have been a big impact on your business. yes, of course. i mean, in shanghai, for instance, which is very important in terms of image for us and for recruiting new clients in mainland china, we had to discontinue the sales. of course, it was a loss from this point of view. but the online sales and our ability to sell from hong kong as well, where there are a lot of chinese buying there too that has helped us to overcome the situation.
just before the pandemic locked the world s cities down, my next guest was talking about opening 100 new restaurants around the world and he knows how to do it as well. his first chain of restaurants, pret a manger, redefined lunch for office workers in mega cities across the planet. his next venture, the asian inspired restaurant itsu, it s opened across the uk and it has a small footprint in europe. its new york restaurant closed during covid. so how has the current state of the world s cities impacted on his plans for global expansion? julian metcalfe, it s great to have you on the show. let s start with this, simply put, how did covid and the closing of offices hit your business? it hit itsu much the same way it hit a great many businesses, particularly hospitality. well, infact, everybody. it s like other hospitality businesses in the sense that as the cities slowly fill up, itsu is thriving. we were lucky that a great many itsus were feeding people outside the great cities and in
of people have sprung to life but in march 2020, that came to a grinding halt in almost every city on the planet. as the covid pandemic crossed borders, those who lived in tightly packed, dense cities were at the greatest risk of catching and passing on the virus. every major metropolis had some kind of lockdown. busy streets, shops, offices, restaurants and theatres were shuttered as people stayed indoors, turning to online and remote working. others like medical and other essential staff still went to work. but the closing of office space hit notjust those working in them, but also the people who made their lunches, brewed their coffees and poured their after work drinks. while debates about restrictions on liberty raged among politicians, perhaps it was the governor of new york who put the reasons for the lockdowns most blatantly to his city. my mother is not expendable. and your mother is not expendable. and our brothers and sisters
busy as they opened up. it almost seems like a decade ago, 2020, february, doesn t it? we ve moved on. and for many people, they re operating their business lives differently but the cities are definitely filling up. julian, before covid you had big global expansion plans. how did you have to change those? well, covid put a stop on everything for a great many of us, but now we are opening a second and third itsu in paris, france. we re opening, hopefully about to start building in brussels, belgium, a second itsu. and we are talking of planning to open in germany and other countries in europe, so we are still going well. we are very fortunate. what about north america? north america was a classic. situation in the sense we had
has changed the most? i m wondering where you are seeing people are returning. and the flip side where people are staying away? we have four major auction sites london, new york, paris and hong kong. all of these auction rooms i ve seen the same phenomenon, you know, moving towards more online sales but still, live auctions, especially for higher value lots, sold in live auction, people want to see the works in the flesh. so, for higher value, still live auction predominantly. but in every auction room, we have seen a move towards more online sales. the most impressive probably is in asia. why? because the effects of covid were longer for instance, in shanghai, we have discontinued our sales. probably in asia, the pivoting towards online has been stronger. people are returning to cities, so what are you doing to take advantage of that, to embrace the return?