In the Corbin & King saga, culinary art has clashed with commerce, reports the Sunday Times
‘Under siege” is not a phrase you tend to hear amid the clink of cutlery and gentle chatter at the Wolseley, the genteel dining establishment in a grand former car showroom on London’s Piccadilly. Yet those were the words of its founder — and the capital’s unofficial maitre d’ — last week. Jeremy King’s majority investor, Asian hotel giant Minor International, is trying to wrestle control of the restaurant group Corbin & King, which employs 745 people and stretches from the Wolseley to Colbert in Chelsea and Brasserie Zédel in Soho, from King and his longstanding business partner, Christopher Corbin.
“Today we are under siege from our investor, which puts its own interest ahead of it all,” King declared in a video sent to customers.
The bitter comment came in a week that saw Corbin & King pushed into administration by the Thai hotel giant, which has owned the majority of its shares since 2017. King, a well-known figure who, in effect, runs the group, faces the prospect of losing the business he and Corbin established almost 20 years ago. They have lined up US investor Knighthead as part of a rescue package. Minor has appointed administrators from FRP.
The Sunday Times
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