South West Coffee Limited which operates 8 Costa Coffee franchises in the Bristol area has been sold to Kout Food Group in a multi-million pound deal advised on by Smith Cooper Corporate Finance.
Smith Cooper project managed the transaction for the Sellers, compiling a comprehensive information pack, valuing the business, identifying and negotiating with the Buyer and providing a full deal management service.
The transaction was ground-breaking because it represented the first significant arms length sale of a Costa franchise business in the UK. Since becoming franchisees in 2008, the Sellers rapidly built a dynamic and profitable business.
The Buyer, Kout Food Group (“Kout”) is a Kuwait based PLC which is part of the Al Homaizi Group and operates over 130 restaurants in the Middle East. Kout has a London based UK subsidiary which already owns operations in Burger King, KFC, Cha Cha Moon, Maison Blanc. It has added to these through the acquisition of Little Chef and the Costa businesses and now runs around 160 restaurants in the UK.
This was the second business that Smith Cooper had advised on in a sale to Kout.
South West Coffee commented, “This is a landmark transaction in the Costa brand, not just an important deal for us personally. The sector knowledge, contacts and experience of Smith Cooper was clear from the start and they did a superb job for us; we would not hesitate to recommend them.”
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Completed:
Aug 13
Smith Cooper Team
John Farnsworth
David Crump
Value£3.04m
