Hubbox, the award-winning, West Country-based better burger business, is set for further growth across the South West after securing new funding from investment firm Provenance Investment Partners, MCA has learnt.
Provenance, which was set up earlier this year by Simon Henderson, a former partner at US private equity firm TPG Capital, the owners of Prezzo, is making a £2.2m investment in the five-strong group via a mixture of equity, loan notes and options for a minority stake in the business.
Henderson will join the Hubbox board as a director. Michael Wodskou, a Cornish entrepreneur, is also a non-executive director and minority shareholder.
The investment values the business, which is chaired by Mark Harper, the former managing director of Haven Holiday Parks, part of the Bourne Leisure Group, at c£5m.
The deal will fund the roll out of the concept, which was launched by restaurateur Richard Boon in St Ives, Cornwall in 2003 and turns over in excess of £5m.
The group, which also operates permanent sites in Exeter, Plymouth and Truro, plus an eight-month residency at Cornish holiday park, Pentewan Sands, is looking to add two to three sites a year for the next four to five years, focusing on locations in the South West.
The company’s next site will open this spring in Bristol, on the site of the former Las Iguanas in Whiteladies Road.
Provenance is backed by some of Britain’s top businessmen, including former Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh, former BBC director-general Greg Dyke and John Lovering, who used to chair Debenhams and Mitchells & Butlers.
Provenance’s first investment in June this year was a minority stake in fast growing hi-tech insole brand, Enertor, worn and endorsed by Usain Bolt.
Boon, a restauranteur by background, opened the Hub restaurant on the harbour front in St Ives in 2003.
A HUBBOX “pop-up” site was launched in Truro in the winter of 2012 operating from a shipping container on the town quay, originally as an idea to keep seasonal staff on in the winter months.
This was such a success that Boon moved the restaurant into a Grade-II listed former Wesleyan chapel in the town achieving a huge increase in covers.
The name Hubbox was created and the container theme stuck. The kitchens in Exeter and Plymouth operating in containers, incorporated into the interior designs.
The concept’s food is all locally sourced, including meat supplied from Philip Warren family butchers in Launceston, Cornwall, supplied only by Devon and Cornish farms, whilst rotating craft beers and ciders are from South West-based microbreweries.
The group said that its classic burger at 7oz is a full ounce bigger than the standard burgers from the other established gourmet chains.
