Pinsent Masons has advised the operating company behind UK pizza chain Franco Manca on its CVA, with the restructuring set to result in the closure of 16 restaurants.
London restructuring partner Edward Smith, who joined Pinsents from Travers Smith in September last year, led the team, which also involved real estate partner Carl Scott.
Fulham Shore, which operates Franco Manca alongside Greek restaurant chain The Real Greek, confirmed the CVA in a statement:
‘Over the last two years under our current management, we have been making strong progress against several key performance indicators, with productivity, customer satisfaction, happiness ratings, loyalty and frequency improving significantly,’ said Fulham Shore CEO Khan.
‘However, even restaurant businesses that are doing all the right things from a customer and operational perspective are not immune to widely publicised pressures impacting the hospitality industry. This includes significant increases in NI and NLW in recent history, as well as a lack of business rates relief for the restaurant sector and disproportionately high VAT in the UK compared with Europe.’
He concluded: ‘As a result of these external cost pressures, we have to make sure that we are putting our business on a sustainable footing for long-term growth and development. This is why we have taken the difficult decision to undertake a CVA for Franco Manca, which will see a minority proportion of our restaurants closing where they are no longer sustainable in this cost environment.’
Fulham Shore was acquired by Tokyo-listed Toridoll for £93.4m in 2023, with Ashurst advising Toridoll’s financial adviser Peel Hunt on the transaction.
Pinsent Masons has built a significant retail restructuring practice in recent years. Last August, it advised the Poundland board on its major restructuring plan, with Slaughter and May advising Poundland owners Pepco Group and DLA Piper advising acquirer Gordon Brothers. In 2023, Pinsents acted for wilko administrators PwC following the hardware retailer’s collapse into administration.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence. Attribution: Daniel from Glasgow, United Kingdom – The streets of London.
