Le Bistrot Pierre, the independent restaurant group, has received a £9.8 million investment from Livingbridge, the leading mid-market private equity business.
Established as a single franchise restaurant in Nottingham in 1994 by school friends John Whitehead and Robert Beacham (pictured l-r above), Bistrot Pierre provides customers with great value French cooking in an authentic setting.
Ambitious plans
The group now has a family of 14 bistrots located across a variety of locations, from large city centres such as Cardiff and coastal bistrots in Torquay to market towns like Leamington Spa, and has been valued in the region of £20 million. In the last six months, Bistrot Pierre has opened two additional bistrots in Bath and Newport – and is planning another two locations in Birmingham and Swansea in 2016.
The business has ambitious plans for growth, delivering record revenues of £18m and profits in excess of £2m in 2015, and will use the investment from Livingbridge to accelerate its restaurant roll out plans and optimise its existing estate.
Co-managing director of Bistrot Pierre, John Whitehead said: “We are excited by Livingbridge’s endorsement of our business and with their investment look forward to expanding our estate and opening more successful bistrots. The whole process leading up to the deal has been smooth and we are now relishing the new years of growth with our partners.”
Bistrot Pierre has a highly loyal customer base – which continues to grow, along with the group’s success. In the past 12 months, as well as a number of new restaurant openings, Bistrot Pierre has launched a unique children’s menu and accompanying activity pack, Menu Enfant – in a move to further expand among the family market.
Commitment and enthusiasm for the eating and drinking out market
Livingbridge is a mid-market private equity business which typically invests in high growth, entrepreneurial businesses and the investment in Bistrot Pierre is the first from its Enterprise 2 fund which completed in October 2015. The fund will target fast growth SMEs in the UK, investing in growth equity and buyout transactions of profitable companies initially requiring up to £10m of equity capital. The investment in Bistrot Pierre is also Livingbridge’s second deal in the restaurant sector having invested in Pho, the Vietnamese restaurant chain, in 2012.
Benoit Broch, director at Livingbridge, said:“Bistrot Pierre is precisely the sort of business that we love working with – they have a fantastic management team, a proven business model and a really differentiated offering and we are really excited about our future partnership with them having had the pleasure of getting to know Robert, John and the team over the past year. This deal really demonstrates Livingbridge’s continued commitment and enthusiasm for the eating and drinking out market and we look forward to building on our growing presence in this space.”