Friday five: the week's biggest hospitality stories
- Hospitality incubator White Rabbit Fund has acquired full control of Island Poké by way of a pre-pack administration. White Rabbit, which has backed the grab-and-go brand since 2016, says the sale will ‘safeguard 104 hospitality jobs and supplier operations’.
- Tortilla has acquired France’s largest fast-casual Mexican restaurant group, providing a platform to accelerate its ambitions to franchise across Europe. The group has acquired the rights to the Fresh Burritos brand alongside its estate of 13 company-owned leasehold restaurants and network of 19 franchised locations for a total consideration of €3.95m. The deal is funded from Tortilla's existing debt facilities and expected to contribute £2.5m of additional annual adjusted EBITDA (pre-IFRS 16) at 24 months maturation.
- The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has called on hospitality businesses in London and South East England to withdraw certain meat and meat products from sale over food safety concerns. Restaurants, cafés and hotels have been asked to withdraw from sale any meat or meat products supplied by Kent-based butcher Block and Cleaver because they may be unsafe to eat.
- Thomas Keller, Asma Khan and Miller Prada were among those recognised at the 2024 Craft Guild of Chefs Awards, which were held last night (24 June) in London. Keller, the famed US chef behind The French Laundry in California, became only the second person in the award’s 30-year history to win an International Chef Award, the first being Alain Ducasse in 2018.
- Bone Daddies will launch a fourth restaurant brand this year as part of a new joint venture. While details on the new concept are limited, information in the London-based group’s latest accounts reveal that it is expected to launch over the summer. Additionally, the group is ‘actively seeking’ new sites for its three existing brands to add to the openings pipeline.
