New World Trading Company (NWTC) managing director Chris Hill has told MCA a pipeline of six sites new sites a year remains the target under new owners Graphite.
He said investment in the existing estate would also continue with plans to extend the Birmingham Botanist with a new basement bar, dedicated Beer Club space and private dining rooms.
He said going forward he would continue to use the “what would Tim Bacon do” benchmark in his decision making and paid tribute to his late mentor’s influence on the currently 14-strong business.
As MCA exclusively revealed yesterday Graphite Capital, the private equity backer of Hawksmoor and Corbin & King, has acquired NWTC from Living Ventures, Hill Capital and LDC for £50m.
He told MCA: “The reason Graphite are such a good fit for NWTC is that they share an almost identical vision for how we can take the business forward.
“They’ve seen the success we have had so far and they don’t see the need to change that so the plan remains to open around six sites a year and grow our presence across the UK.”
The group has further openings lined up open in Sheffield, York and Reading for the coming months and Hill said there were other potential sites in the pipeline.
On leaving the Living Ventures stable, Hill said: “I would echo Jeremy (Roberts, LV chief executive)’s comments about this deal being bittersweet in that Tim (Bacon, late chairman and co-founder) was not able to see it completed.
“Tim was my mentor and NWTC owes so much to his vision. I will always have that thought of ‘what would Tim do’ when I’m making decisions.
“Living Ventures is very much my family but there’s a very exciting new chapter to come with Graphite and I’m looking forward to fully focussing on the growth of the company again.”
