Mia Johansson and Bobby Hiddleston, who co-founded Swift with Roisin Stimpson and Edmund Weil, are to leave the London bar group this summer, CLASS can exclusively reveal.
The pair have sold back their shares in the three Swift bars - in Soho, Shoreditch and Borough - to embark on a new chapter of their lives in Stockholm, Sweden.
Swift’s operations manager Coral Anderson (pictured below), who has been with the group since the launch of the first site in 2016 (Soho), has been at the forefront of its success and now becomes managing director and co-owner of the bars, taking a "meaningful" sweat-equity stake.
Hiddleston and Johansson told CLASS: “We’re moving to Sweden to be with family. It's such a shame we can't pick up the bars and bring them with us. It’s a sad time – but we couldn’t be leaving it in safer hands.
“Coral will do a fabulous job of bringing Swift into a new dimension and we are so grateful to Ed and Rosie for approaching us all those years ago."
The pair will take some time out following their last shift at Swift in late July, but plan to return to hospitality in some form. "Hospitality is all we’ve done," they said. "We’ll take time off but there might be a project in the making – something not associated with Swift.”
Hiddleston will continue to be involved at Swift further into this summer on a consultancy basis as the bar’s leadership transitions.
Stimpson and Weil, who also own London music-cocktail venues Nightjar and Oriole, added: “This partnership has worked so well and it comes to an end very neatly and nicely. It’s been a real success story - having partners as shareholders is something we’ll continue to do.”
“Coral has been with us since day one and has been instrumental, so we felt that she deserved to be a partner with a meaningful shareholding. Coral has the coolest head in hospitality and the widest bandwidth we’ve seen – she’s the model hospitality manager.”
Anderson, who has co-run Swift for four years as operation manager, said: “My job title will change but my role? Not as much as people might expect. We built this together – everything we’ve done at Swift I’ve had a hand in creating - so I don’t plan to make any immediate changes.”
“Our intention is to honour and stay true to the Swift DNA which has made it the much-loved group of bars it is today.”
Anderson will now be joined by Connor Bloomfield as head of bars. Currently the bar manager at Swift Shoreditch, in his new role Connor will oversee the cocktail programmes at all three sites, while nurturing talent.
According to Weil and Stimpson, there are no immediate plans to expand the Swift footprint to further sites.