BGF (Business Growth Fund), the UK’s leading independent investor of growth capital in UK smaller and medium sized businesses, has invested a further £3.6m in award-winning burrito bar chain, Barburrito. BGF still retains a minority stake in the business following this latest investment.
Barburrito was BGF’s first investment in the North West made in April 2012.
UK’s first burrito bar chain
Launching in 2005, Barburrito was the UK’s first burrito bar chain. Since the initial investment of growth capital from BGF, Barburrito has made excellent progress on its rollout programme, including three new sites across London and additional sites in Leeds and Nottingham, becoming the first burrito bar in the UK with a national presence.
Award-winning Barburrito is a chain of fast-casual Mexican restaurants that offer healthy food to eat in or take away. Over the last two years the business has invested heavily in operations, branding and its supply chain to enable rapid expansion. At the same time, its existing sites have continued to experience strong like-for-like sales growth. Barburrito’s rapidly growing popularity with consumers is due to it consistency in serving fast, fresh and healthy “Mex inspired” food.
Graham Turner joins Board
Following BGF’s latest investment, Graham Turner has joined the board as Non-Executive Chairman. Introduced via BGF’s Talent Network, he brings to the board extensive experience in the casual dinning and leisure sectors. Graham is currently Executive Chairman of Novus Leisure, which operates 47 unique bars, restaurants and late night experiences, and is Non-Executive Chairman of the Liberation Group, the market leading pubs, bars, eateries and drinks business operating across the Channel Islands. From 2005 – 2012 Graham was the CEO of Tragus Group, one of the UK’s largest independent restaurant companies, with more than 290 sites across the country serving over 22 million meals every year. Tragus’s portfolio of brands includes Café Rouge, Bella Italia and Strada. Prior to this he was the Managing Director of the Unique Pub Company with some 4,000 leased pubs in the UK.
Taking the business to the next level
Morgan Davies, MD and founder of Barburrito, commented:
“We started this great burrito race in the UK and we are delighted to secure further funding through BGF to take the business to the next level. This is a great vote of confidence from our investment partners and, most importantly, the funds give us the fire power to continue on our mission to be the most loved burrito brand in the UK. We have recently taken the opportunity to strengthen our management team and, with the addition of Graham as Chairman, we have the leadership in place to crack on with planned expansion.”
About BGF
Business Growth Fund has been established to help Britain’s fast growing smaller and medium sized businesses. Growth potential is the key criteria. BGF will invest between £2m and £10m per business in return for a minority equity stake and a seat on the board for a BGF director. BGF will provide long-term equity investment for those growing companies that today do not have access to this source of capital. As such BGF hopes to be a catalyst for growth among smaller UK companies.
BGF is an independent company with capital of up to £2.5 billion, backed by five of the UK’s main banking groups – Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, RBS, and Standard Chartered. BGF is managed completely autonomously with an independent management team.
For more information about BGF click here
About Barburrito
The first Barburrito was opened by founder Morgan Davis in 2005 in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester. The headquarters are in Spinningfields in Manchester. It now has eleven stores across five cities (Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Nottingham and London). The company employs 200 people. Barburrito is expanding and looking for top sites in high footfall destinations including major city centres, shopping centres and travel hubs.
For more information about Barburrito click here