Ed’s Easy Diner, the Andrew Guy-led chain, has secured a £9.5m increase to its existing bank facilities, which it said puts in place the funding to take the brand up to 50 sites.
The 31-strong group, which earlier this year appointed corporate advisory firm McQueen to advise it on its financing options, said that the new funding arrangement with NatWest is on attractive terms.
A new term loan facility of £14m has been agreed and signed, £9.5m more than previous facility.
The company said that this, together with the substantial cash generated by the business, will sustain its growth and finance its targeted future expansion plans to the end of 2015.
Ed’s has been accelerating the roll out of its diners since the beginning of this year, and currently has 31 restaurants, 10 of which have opened in the financial year to the end of September 2014.
The group said its site pipeline is very strong and well developed for next year. It is hoped that Ed’s will open around 20 restaurants over the next 15 months.
The company, which currently operates 26 sites under its core brand, will open its next site and first in Scotland at Fort Kinnaird, Edinburgh later this month.
In November, it expects to open a unit at the St Enochs shopping scheme in Glasgow. It is also believed to have lined up an opening at the Eastgate shopping scheme in Inverness and the Grosvenor scheme in Chester, plus sites in Woking, Cambridge and Birmingham.
It is thought that if a sales process was undertaken it would be geared toward the start of 2015.
Earlier this year, the company announced its ambition to grow its estate to over 100 sites by September 2018.
It said that trading has been strong over the past few months both in existing and newly opened stores “underpinning management’s confidence that Ed’s generates excellent returns from a wider range of differing locations than initially envisaged”.
Stephen Greene, chairman,said: “We are delighted with NatWest’s support of our strategy and future expansion plans. We have a proven formula which is delivering profits and generating cash. This, together with a focussed and experienced management team, will lead the Ed’s brand to further success.”
Mark Flett, relationship director at NatWest said: “We are delighted to support Ed’s as the business embarks on a series of expansion plans to support its business aspirations. We wish the business every success for the future.”
