Burger chain Byron has been immediately acquired upon entering administration for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will see Calverton take on only 20 of the 51 Byron restaurants with no details of the prospects of the remaining 31.
Byron has for years flirted with financial difficulties and only two years ago used a company voluntary arrangement to close 20 restaurants to reduce rent costs.
This is another hard blow to the hospitality industry and the casual dining sector, particularly for about half the 1,200 Byron workforce with circa 600 job losses.
The details of the deal have not been released and the price realised by the administrators will not have been helped by a statement made by Byron earlier this year. The statement warned that Byron thought it was in danger of going out of business and cast doubt on any buyer being interested in all its assets.
There was some good news in the casual dining sector yesterday as private equity firm Epiris successfully concluded a deal to take control of the Las Iguanas, Bella Italia and Café Rouge restaurant businesses, in concert with the existing management team led by CEO James Spragg.
Casual Dining Group was acquired from administration, preserving more than 4,000 jobs across the UK and over 150 restaurants trading as Las Iguanas, Bella Italia and Café Rouge.
Epiris has invested significant cash into the business to help spark a rapid unlocking of the group’s operations, with its restaurant businesses starting to reopen across the UK next week.
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Burger chain Byron acquired – 2 August 2020 – Burger chain Byron acquired