Chargrill restaurant chain, Coal Grill and Bar, has doubled its estate after acquiring the leasehold on sites in Guildford, Richmond, Bristol and Exeter.
The company's Guildford site is due to open in April and will be followed by the opening of the Richmond site in May. Coal Grill and Bar also acquired West Country company Shed Restaurants, which has sites in Bristol and Exeter.
Shed Restaurant’s Severnshed is housed in a former boathouse designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel on Bristol’s waterside. It will continue to trade under its existing name but Exeshed in Exeter, which features views of the city’s cathedral, will be rebranded as a Coal.
The deal takes the chain to eight sites with negotiations ongoing for a ninth location to open this autumn. If successful it will push Coal’s annual turnover north of £13m, with further openings planned for 2011.
The company, backed by private equity groups Beringea and Octupus, as well as Barclays bank, is majority owned by managing director John Gater, the founder of Ma Potter’s, which was sold to Tragus in 2007.
Coal also has restaurants in south London’s Wimbledon; Bristol’s Cabot Circus; Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre and Basingstoke’s Festival Place shopping centre.
Chris Druce is an editor at BigHospitality's sister publication M&C Report