Following his successful exit from Fulham Shore, which saw him bank £16m, serial entrepreneur David Page insists he has not managed any of his exits successfully, and reveals more about why he wants to make it fourth time lucky with another restaurant investment vehicle
David Page, who recently sold his third business Franco Manca, is hoping to make it fourth time lucky with a new investment vehicle.
Page, who built up and sold Pizza Express, as well as Clapham House, recently finalised the sale of the sourdough pizza brand Franco Manca for £93m.
He said the buyer, Japanese food group Toridoll Holdings, had at least two concepts they were considering bringing to the UK, where it also operates QSR noodle brand Marugame Udon.
Having sold the business, which also includes Fulham Shore stablemate The Real Greek, Page has signed up to consult for Toridoll.
Once this work is done, he will focus on his next project, 704 Restaurants, a new investment vehicle which will target European businesses of between 1-20 sites.
Page will look to build a maximum of eight European brands within this newly formed company, with £250k seed capital, and a planned EIS investment round 2 targeting £10m.
Speaking at MCA’s Restaurant Conference, Page described his consultancy work with Torridoll, who are also working with investor Capdesia on rolling out Franco Manca.
“I’m helping them whenever they pick up the phone to me. They very much have their own ideas and they bought Franco Manca to consolidate in the UK but also a platform to expand all around the world.
“I went over to Hong Kong month ago and the chap who runs and owns Torridoll [president and CEO Takaya Awatais] a very nice chap and he showed great interest in bringing a couple of concepts to the UK.”
Having personally banked £16m from the sale of Fulham Shore, he is determined to do it all again rather than put his feet up and enjoy retirement – though he insists he will take a hands-off approach.
“Once my contract with Toridoll runs out, I’m going to start a fourth time lucky investment vehicle and look for other things.
“I haven’t actually done any work since 1986! At Pizza Express, I looked at properties, raised finance and talked to shareholders. And I plan to do that in the future. I’ve always worked with a team of operators.”
Page is open minded about what type of cuisine category his next investment might be in – though says another pizza brand would have to be “category killer”.
“I’m really only interested in trying food lots of times, and if you like the people who founded it. It almost doesn’t matter as long as I like the food and I’m proud of it.”
Discussing the background to the Fulham Shore transaction, he said: “Somebody approached us pre-Covid. We were just about to start whitewashing [obtaining shareholder approval to provide a guarantee to a potential buyer] but then Covid blew it apart.
“The same people reappeared about a year ago. We started a process through Rothschild and four or five people were interested.
“We got down to two and the person who offered the most got the business. The number two wasn’t very happy…
“As you can see, I build businesses to sell them so. Obviously, I’m very, very proud of Franco Manca. It’s amazing. That’s the case for all the businesses that I have built and owned.
“I’m sure it will go from strength to strength without me. As I say, I haven’t been involved in operations for years.”
He went on to describe what made Franco Manca such a strong concept, where others have struggled coming out of Covid.
“I would say this, but I think it’s the best price and the best product - and the best chosen property sites.”
Despite achieving three major exits in his career, Page said none realised as much value as they could have, due to unfortunate timing.
“Wrong time, wrong price, too cheap. The people who bought them got fantastic bargain. I haven’t managed any of the exits successfully.
“Despite the first one being 25 times what I paid, the second one only five, and Franco Manca x18, they still all had legs in them.
“With Pizza expresses we got caught out by Mad Cow disease. All three were public companies. It’s much better if you’re private as you can manage your exit better.
“Maybe fourth time around, it will be private and bit longer.”
The entrepreneur, who made £25 from the sale of Pizza Express, said many other stakeholders shared in its success.
“We floated at 40 pence and the share price went to nearly £10. It was always a fantastic company, it was very meritocratic, and everybody had options and we floated.
“For years afterwards, people would come up to me in the street and shake my hand - I had no idea who they were - and say how they could afford to buy their own house on the options they had as restaurant managers and area managers.”
