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The owner of Franco Manca and Real Greek slumped to a £14m loss shortly after it its boss quit in the wake of a swathe of restaurant closures.
Private equity firm Fulham Shore was hit by a £14.2m loss before tax in the year to March 2025, Companies House filings have revealed, nearly triple its £5m loss in the year before.
While the owner of the pizza purveyor widened its slice of revenue by 72 per cent to £1.7m, huge restructuring and write-down costs took a bite out of these takings.
Fulham Shore was saddled with an £11m write-down of its value, which its auditors attributed to “adverse trading performance”.
The restaurant group’s accounts also reveal £442,000 of restructuring costs, meaning £12m worth of exceptional items weighed on its turnover.
Marcel Khan, Fulham Shore’s chief executive, resigned from his post at the end of May.
£11m write-down over ‘adverse’ trading
In April, the private equity firm launched a drastic restructuring of Franco Manca which saw 16 locations – including its original site in Brixton Market – close and caused 225 workers to lose their jobs.
Khan, then Fulham Shore’s chief executive, blamed Rachel Reeves for saddling the hospitality industry with “disproportionately high” taxes.
In the same month, the restaurant group put the Real Greek chain into administration to allow it to focus on the “significant growth potential” of Franco Manca.
Karali Group, the owners of Cote Brasserie, stepped in to buy 19 of the 28 Greek restaurant outlets, while the others fell into administration.
The owner of the restaurant chains claims that these sell-offs have put the remnants of Franco Manca on the “strongest possible footing to realise its long-term potential”.
Fulham Shore said it is taking on additional debt to drive its turnaround of these remaining pizza restaurants.
The firm has taken on a £21m loan from its owners, Japanese restaurant group Toridoll, and a £12m credit facility from HSBC.
‘Disproportionately high taxes’
Fulham Shore said it is making “strong progress against several key strategic initiatives and performance indicators, driving improved operational discipline, stronger shift execution and an enhanced guest experience.”
Franco Manca joins a growing list of British hospitality firms that have been forced to scale back in recent years, blaming hikes to business rates and rising employment costs.
In recent weeks, hospitality leaders have rallied around a campaign calling on the government to slash VAT on pubs, bars and restaurants from 20 to 10 per cent.
The lobbying effort, led by celebrity chef Tom Kerridge and backed by Greene King and Hilton hotels, claims that this would be the simplest way to stop more hospitality firms from going bust.
Some sector leaders, including Kerridge, have endorsed Andy Burnham’s bid to become Prime Minister because he has pledged to slash VAT and business rates for hospitality businesses.
Colin Berry, Fulham Shore’s new chief executive, said: “Despite delivering clear and sustained improvements across the metrics that matter most to consumers, the results, which occur from a period prior to our restructuring, highlight the challenges facing the sector.
“As an industry, we are facing an operating environment with elevated cost of inflation and VAT that is significantly higher than our international peers, which presents a significant issue to hospitality businesses – even for those like ours that have delivered meaningful progress.”
