Richoux Group, the casual restaurant operator, this morning revealed it has raised £2m via a share placing in order to fund expansion.
The company said that it hoped to test the viability of its Zippers and Frankie’s Easy Diner brands.
The Hon. Robert Rayne, Salvatore Diliberto and Phillip Kaye, founder of the Golden Egg restaurant group and father of ASK’s founders Adam and Sam Kaye, will take up the lion’s share of the 25 million share placing.
In a statement, Richoux said: “As set out in the interim results for the 28 weeks ended 11 July 2010 which were announced on 13 September 2010, the board intends to expand the number of Zippers and Frankie’s Easy Diner outlets in order to assess the viability of these concepts.
“In line with this strategy the board has identified a number of sites it hopes to acquire in order to open. The placing, alongside the existing cash resources of the company, will fund the site acquisition and opening program.”
Change of name
The group also revealed that intended to change the name of Frankie’s Easy Diner, its 50s American diner concept and would announce the new moniker shortly.
Philip Shotter, chairman of Richoux, said: "We are delighted to have raised these funds to support the further development of our Zippers and 1950s American diner style concepts. Both have been trialled and we are encouraged by their progress thusfar. We are actively seeking additional sites to further assess the viability of the concepts."
Martyn Leek is news editor of BigHospitality's sister publication, M&C Report.