Wed, 23 Apr 2014 | MBO/MBI
Living Ventures has completed a management buyout of restaurant and bar group Gusto, with a large expansion of the business now being planned.
The MBO, which was announced on 17 April, was led by Tim Bacon, the serial entrepreneur and restaurateur, and funded by the private equity group Palatine.
Advised by national law firm Shoosmiths, Palatine now owns a 65 per cent stake in the company following the deal for an undisclosed sum. A management team including Bacon, CEO of Living Ventures; Sue Crimes, managing director; and Jeremy Roberts, commercial director, holds the rest of the company’s stake.
Gusto currently comprises of nine restaurants and bars, employing over 400 staff. However, in an interview since the MBO, Bacon has revealed that he and his team plan to roll out the Gusto brand across 16 new sites over the next five years, including some in London and a new flagship restaurant in Manchester city centre. The expansion will be debt funded by Barclays and Beechbrook Capital.
Bacon told M&C Report that the company is “comfortable enough that it has enough funding in place to do 25 or 26 units”. He added: “It will be great to see what has been a very successful brand in the north west finally get its wings and fly.
“Jeremy [Roberts] and I are very excited to be working with Sue [Crimes] and the team to take Gusto to a national audience.”
Bacon and the Living Ventures team are currently featuring in a BBC 2 documentary 'Restaurant Wars - The Battle for Manchester', pitting their new Manchester House restaurant and its Michelin Star Chef Aiden Byrne against another Manchester restaurant and chef.
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