Sentinel Capital and TriArtisan Partners, the new owners of TGI Friday’s, the US-themed restaurant chain, are in the early stages of considering a sale of its British arm.
According to the Sunday Telegraph, the new owners, which acquired the c900-strong business in May for c$800m (£470m), have held a beauty parade of banks to lead a potential sale of the Karen Forrester-led, 61-strong business and are likely to appoint advisers in the coming weeks.
M&C Report flagged up in April that there was speculation suggesting tentative moves were being made to assess the level of interest from investors to back a management buyout of the business, which is valued at c£200m.
TGI Friday’s UK reported a 3.6% rise in like-for-like sales in its most recent accounts for the 52 weeks to 29 December 2013, and said its most recent openings are performing “in excess of expectations”.
Turnover in the year climbed to £166.8m, up from £147.7m, while EBITDA increased to £19.9m from £17.2m.
It plans to open seven new sites this year, creating 700 new jobs in the process, including openings in Brighton, Gloucester Quays, Glasgow and Milton Keynes.
The company is to launch a new “Fast Track” format at its upcoming opening at Manchester Piccadilly station, its first site at a transport hub.
Part of its aim to reach 120 UK locations by 2020, the company said the new site will combine the “fresh and flavourful food for which Friday’s is famous within a restaurant environment tailored to the needs of the busy traveller”, with meals to be served within 10 minutes of order.
Forrester told M&C Report in 2013: “I’ve always believed that the core Friday’s can get to 80 [sites], maybe a little more. There are smaller towns that I think would welcome it, but it’s almost impossible to get 7,000/8,000/9,000 sq ft [premises]. So we’d want to make sure that if we went into a smaller footprint, a smaller box, we can deliver the Fridays experience. We’re working on something that has the Friday’s DNA, including an open bar and kitchen.”
