BRAND LOYALTY: ISSAS ACQUIRE FAST-FOOD CHAIN
EXPANSION ON THE MENU AS BROTHERS REVEAL PLANS TO GROW FOODSERVICE NETWORK
BRITISH Indian brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa have acquired popular fastfood chain Leon, as they revealed their goal to grow their foodservice operations in the UK.
Leon pitches itself in the category of “naturally fast food” with a focus on creating a healthy menu with sustainable ingredients. The acquisition is said to be worth an estimated £100 million.
John Vincent, Henry Dimbleby and chef Allegra McEvedy set up Leon in 2004.
“Leon is a fantastic brand we have long admired. As established entrepreneurs in the foodservice retail market ourselves, we have a huge admiration for the business that John and the Leon team have built over the years, and firmly believe that their culture and values closely align with our own,” said the Issas, co-founders and co-CEOs of the EG Group.
The brothers, whose parents moved to the UK from Gujarat in the 1970s, own the Euro Garages chain of petrol stations as part of their EG Group business.
“The acquisition of Leon presents EG Group with a fantastic opportunity to further develop the menu offer, the various concession formats including drivethroughs, and will enable us to significantly build on the existing network by exploring opportunities across our own sites along with other strategic locations,” they said.
With more than 70 restaurants, Leon has 42 company-owned outlets operated on leasehold locations, with a strong presence in London.
In addition, it has 29 franchised sites at transport hubs (mainly airports and train stations) across Britain and in Europe, principally the Netherlands.
“In some ways this is a sad day for me, to part company with the business I founded 17 years ago in Carnaby Street (London). But I have had the pleasure of getting to know Mohsin and Zuber across the last few years. They have been enthusiastic customers of Leon, going out of their way to eat here whenever they visit London,” said Vincent.
“They are decent, hard-working business people who are committed to sustaining and further strengthening the values and culture that we have built at Leon, a business that has my dad’s name above the door,” he added.
“Mohsin and Zuber will not just be superb custodians of the Leon brand, through EG Group they have the vision, investment appetite, foodservice expertise and network scale to take Leon to many more people and places.”
The EG Group operates more than 700 foodservice outlets in the UK and Ireland, of which 310 operate from standalone premises. Despite the impact of Covid-19, the company said its foodservice business accounted for 46 per cent of the gross profit of the UK and Ireland division in 2020. The group’s foodservice brand portfolio includes other third-party brands such as Starbucks, KFC, Burger King, Greggs, Sbarro, Cinnabon and Subway.
The Issa brothers added: “EG Group continues to identify innovative partnerships and acquisitions that complement our existing consumer offer and enable us to stay at the forefront of consumer trends, particularly in foodservice.
“Our equity investment in Leon is to strengthen our own participation in the fast-growing contemporary foodservice segment. This acquisition aligns with our commitment to being a committed foodservice operator globally, delivers financial benefit to our underlying business, and supports broader commercial strategies to be able to better realise further growth opportunities.”
Founded in 2001 by the Issa family, the EG Group employs over 44,000 people across more than 6,000 sites across Europe, the US and Australia. The brothers, Mohsin and Zuber, were each conferred with a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020, for their contribution to business and charity.
Last year, they acquired leading UK supermarket chain Asda from US owners Walmart as part of the strategy to expand their non-fuel business.