Derek and Edwina Lilley, the couple who founded the Est Est Est chain, have won £18m backing to expand their latest two ventures, the Restaurant Bar & Grill and Piccolino's, across the UK.
At the same time Vernon Lord, the former finance director of Inventive Leisure, is among the directors joining the board of the Lilleys' Individual Restaurant Company.
The Individual Restaurant Company currently has six outlets, including two Piccolino's in Knutsford and Manchester and three Bar & Grills in Manchester; Alderley, Cheshire; and Marlow in Buckinghamshire.
The company is now getting funding worth £18m from the private equity firm Gresham, which specialises in mid-market companies and has an office in Manchester, and Lloyds TSB.
The Manchester Piccolino's is situated in a failed branch of Fish! in Clarence Street, while the flagship Restaurant Bar & Grill in John Dalton Street, Manchester, opened in 2000, claims to have Manchester's longest bar.
The Lilleys sold the 13-unit Est Est Est Italian restaurant chain for £13m to City Centre Restaurants (now the Restaurant Group) in 1998. In recent years the chain, which now has 21 outlets around the UK, has failed to shine.
