The owners of Las Iguanas, Café Rouge and Bella Italia filed their notice of intent today.
With around 250 sites this is a major potential loss of jobs in our industry. They were in financial trouble before the lockdown started and have said that the move will give them 10 days breathing space to consider ‘all options’ for restructuring.
Options open to them include shutting down certain brands, or less profitable sites, and keeping their more popular venues open. For the staff, the majority of whom were furloughed, it will be a nervous period.
UPDATE 19th May – According to reports coming out of Sky News, it appears that the plan is for one of the three core brands (listed in the intro) will be put into administration with the other two being put into Company Voluntary Administration
In other news it looks like Boparan Restaurants, who own Giraffe, will be buying Carluccio’s saving up to 900 jobs. It is reported that they would be reopening 30 of the 70 sites across the UK once the lockdown is over.