The Shire Group Limited has continued its rapid growth with two further acquisitions in October.
Incorporated in July 2005 to acquire the Pastiche Bistro chain of restaurants The Shire Group’s Head Office is based in Northumberland and now operates restaurants in York, Bath and across the Midlands.
The first of the recent deals saw the company acquire Barland Limited, a Tamworth based restaurant operator.
This was swiftly followed by the major acquisition of Wolfteam Limited, which has five large restaurants in Ormskirk, Warrington, St Helens, Wigan and Preston, all operating under the “Le Frog Bistro” brand. The Le Frog Bistro product is based around modern English and Mediterranean dishes at affordable prices in a bistro atmosphere.
Paul Lilley, owner of The Shire Group, was delighted to seal the latest deals. “Barland, and Wolfteam in particular, bring to the company important critical mass. These acquisitions will see the company turnover increase to approximately £5 million. It is now vital, after an extremely busy time from a transactional point of view, that we consolidate and integrate the new businesses into the group. My aim is to have around 40 restaurants in the group within five years, and I will look at further strategic acquisitions over the next year with my advisors.”
Lilley was advised on both deals by the corporate finance team at RHK, and by Robert Muckle solicitors. Barclays Birmingham office assisted with funding for the transactions.
Tony Edwards, RHK Corporate Finance Partner, was particularly pleased that the deals completed in a timely fashion. “When Paul has a deal in mind, naturally he wants it done as quickly and professionally as possible. From RHK’s point of view this involved two important elements early on in the process. First, we helped Paul to negotiate and formalise clear and concise Heads of Terms with the vendors. Next, because of the rapid rate of development of The Shire Group, Barclays required a detailed business plan which fully addressed the company’s development to date, and the impact of the acquisitions on its future. We worked with Paul to produce a coherent and comprehensive plan which meant that Barclays were quickly able to deliver credit approval on the funding.”
Stephen McNicol, Managing Partner of Robert Muckle LLP, was delighted with the way that The Shire Group and their advisor teams had worked together. He said, “successful completion of these two deals so soon after Paul’s acquisition of Maddison Bistros last month was down to a great team effort. This has been a very busy period for The Shire Group, ourselves and for RHK and it is particularly satisfying to reflect that everyone involved in each transaction really contributed to an extremely successful outcome for Paul. It makes all the hard work worthwhile. We very much look forward to working alongside Paul and RHK on future acquisitions.”
Click here to take a look at our Corporate Finance deal summary.
Members: DJ Thompson FCA DC Hall FCA GJ Miller FCA BC Thomas P Storey FCCA. RHK Business Advisers LLP is registered in England as a Limited Liability Partnership No. OC308294. Registered to carry on audit work by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
