INSIGHT
Pizza on the property menu The world’s most popular cuisine is firmly on the menu at Christie & Co (www.christie.com), reports their senior director – corporate pubs & restaurants, Simon Chaplin. TIMELESS POPULARITY Since our inception in 1935, Italian restaurants have featured heavily in Christie & Co’s activity when it comes to the buying, selling, and valuing of trading businesses. In recent years, 20% of the restaurants we have sold have offered Italian cuisine more than any other food style. Its popularity appears to be timeless and while brand names may come and go, the cuisine remains ubiquitous and a go-to for the British public. Certainly, the dynamics for selling an Italian restaurant are simpler than some, and due to the nature of the trade, more transferable to a new incoming purchaser. Whilst the branded high street restaurants such as ASK, Pizza Express and Strada take their name and goodwill with them when they sell and move on from a site, the typical independent owneroperated venue will normally be in a more accessible location with rents to match thus, the restaurant’s name and goodwill can remain. Like all hospitality businesses, the last twelve months have been tough for restaurants across the UK due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and various lockdowns, which ordered businesses to close or trade with restrictions in place and directed people to ‘stay at home’. Subsequently, this has driven a shift towards localisation and as a result, our hospitality experts have observed a renewed demand for community-based operations over city-centre premises, which have seen 36
huge declines in footfall due to many people continuing to work from and stay closer to home. TAKEAWAY BOOST Additionally, the pandemic has driven the rise of takeaway and delivery services, with sales surging by at least 20% due to increased demand from consumers when they were unable to eat out, which has been sustained. The delivery sector was already booming prior to the virus outbreak and 2020 can be marked as the year it came into its own, with the market now reported to be worth over £8.5 billion. With many restaurants occupying leasehold premises, survival throughout the pandemic has relied on operators working with landlords and pivoting the business by generating income through other means, such as takeaway and delivery. I know many businesses which have introduced this service and found it welcomed not just by their existing customers but also new ones who will hopefully become diners in the near future. Fortunately for Italian operators, the takeaway and delivery opportunity is a well-trodden route. Despite a challenging twelve months, the transactional market has remained active and for us, 2020 ended with the sale of over 170 hospitality business of all shapes and sizes. We also valued and advised on over 800 businesses with an aggregate value of £2.6 billion.
NEXT OPPORTUNITY This explosion in the takeaway and delivery sector has also led Christie & Co down a new route and into the world of franchising. In January 2020, before the realisation that COVID would turn the world upside down, we were asked by Yum! UK to seek a new franchisee who would bring new expertise and dynamics to 27 Pizza Hut Delivery stores across the Midlands and North West. Yum!, a Fortune 1000 company which owns a multitude of international fast-food outlets (namely Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC), currently has over 50,000 restaurants in more than 150 countries, 400 of which are in the UK. The sale offered the buyer the unique opportunity to become one of the company’s largest franchisees, with Starboard Hotels secured as the successful new franchisee partner. The sale, named Project Topping, comprised a portfolio with net revenues of over £15 million, a strong online presence and trading position in a high growth sector that has been resilient to the current market disruption. This was challenging assignment in many ways, notably as it was a confidential process during June 2021
