Ego Restaurants, the Mediterranean casual dining concept, has merged with Rocket Restaurants, the pizza and salad restaurant operator, under a new umbrella company named 3Sixty Restaurants Ltd.
The new company will comprise eight Ego restaurants in the Midlands and North of England and three Rocket restaurants, located all in Central London with sites in Mayfair, the City and Canary Wharf.
Group annual sales will be in excess of £12m.
Rocket, which was founded by husband and wife duo Anna and Duncan Watts, with partner Amit Joshi in 1999, serves high quality pizza and salads with an extensive wine and cocktail list. Duncan Watts was one of the founders of the Pitcher & Piano chain of pubs that was sold to Marston’s in 1996.
The majority shareholders will continue to be significant shareholders in 3Sixty Restaurants.
This merger comes only six months after Luke Johnson, the serial restaurant investor, acquired a majority stake in Ego, which is led by James Horler.
Johnson will become chairman of 3Sixty Restaurants Ltd and Horler will be chief executive.
The management teams of both businesses remain with the company.
Johnson said: “Putting together two businesses makes commercial sense for all shareholders and is the start of us creating a much bigger business with a number of brands that operate in different trading environments. It is also a delight to be back in the pizza market with a brand like Rocket that does it extremely well and has a very loyal customer base”
Horler said: “This is a significant move for both businesses and I am very much looking forward to working with the management teams of both Ego and Rocket to create an exciting business that can deliver some considerable returns over the forthcoming years.”
