- London-based Taiwanese restaurant group BAO has brought in a new investor after 10 years with JKS Restaurants. BAO founders Shing Tat Chung, Erchen Chang and Wai Ting Chung have announced that the Singapore-based The Lo & Behold Group (TLBG) has acquired JKS’s position in the company and will support the brand in its next phase of growth.
- Pub and restaurant group Oakman has collapsed into administration with multiple sites shut and several more sold off. Ross David Connock, Mark James Tobias Banfield and Tom Crookham of PwC were appointed as joint administrators of Oakman Inns & Restaurants Limited and Oakman Dev Limited yesterday (21 July). As a result, six sites including The Grand Junction Arms in Tring, The Journeyman in Gerrards Cross and The George in Ludlow have ceased trading with immediate effect, causing 159 redundancies. A further 14 sites including one freehold and 13 leasehold pubs were sold to Hampshire-founded pub operator Upham Inns.
- The two-Michelin-starred chef behind London’s Da Terra will open a restaurant in Hove later this summer. Marea by Rafael Cagali will be located on Church Road on the site that was once home to chef Greg Clarke’s short-lived Mexican restaurant El Bolillo, and will be positioned between the chef’s flagship restaurant and the more casual Elis, which is also located in Bethnal Green Town Hall.
- The group behind QSR brand Bunsik is to open what it is billing as ‘the biggest Korean BBQ restaurant in UK’ later this year in Manchester. Called Bullgogi, the restaurant will take over the former Marks and Spencer store in Piccadilly Gardens.
- The Jamie Oliver Group has opened six sites and expanded into three new markets under plans to add 15 restaurants to its growing global estate this year. The group has opened two new Jamie’s Italian restaurants in the Middle East - in Bahrain’s Marassi Galleria Mall and the Mall of Oman, Muscat – as well as one in Montenegro and is set to open at least six more locations, including three in the Middle East, a new format in Belgrade, two in India, and two brand new European launches that are still under wraps.