Bella Italia owner hopes sale can save 6,000 jobs

THE owner of Bella Italia and Café Rouge is in talks with several possible buyers over a sale of the business, raising hopes that up to 6,000 jobs can be saved.

Casual Dining Group, which also owns the Latin American-themed chain Las Iguanas and operates more than 250 sites, said it had received strong expressions of interest from other restaurant groups and private equity firms. Preliminary discussions have begun with a number of suitors.

The prospect of a rescue of one of Britain’s biggest restaurant businesses comes less than two weeks after Casual Dining Group appeared to be on the brink of collapse.

The company, majority-owned by US investment firm KKR, filed an intention to appoint administrators at the High Court earlier this month.

Casual Dining Group said at the time that bankruptcy proceedings had been lined up to protect the business from legal action being taken by landlords over unpaid rent.

The company said the move sparked a flurry of interest from bidders, which have contacted its financial adviser Alixpartners. Interested parties are believed to be seeking to buy the company as a whole, rather than cherry-picking its better-performing brands such as Las Iguanas.

Selling the business in its entirety is one of a number of options, the company said. Other strategies could include putting one or more of its brands through an insolvency process such as a company voluntary arrangement or a pre-pack administration.

It is understood that Café Rouge was returning to profitability just as the crisis hit, while Bella Italia was primed for a major revamp in March.

The Government is fast-tracking laws to prevent landlords winding up firms over unpaid rent in a bid to stave off a wave of collapses when lockdown is lifted.