Funds manager Quadrant Private Equity has gobbled up Urban Purveyor Group for a cool $200 million, with plans for rapid expansion.
UPG comprises 11 Bavarian Bier Cafes, as well as Ananas Brasserie and The Cut bar & grill in The Rocks, Swine & Co, and four Sake restaurants.
The Australian reported Quadrant chief executive Tom Pash forecasting ambitious expansion plans. “I think we will double the company in the next 24 months.”
This apparently includes another Sake instalment, in Melbourne, and a spin-off Sake Junior brand to begin in Sydney. Brisbane and Melbourne will get a Cut instalment, and Sydney and Melbourne will see a new Italian brand, Stella – all during 2016.
Pash suggests there may be up to 30 more Sakes, and up to 50 more Bavarian Bier Cafes, heralding a massive group brand unseen in Australia in recent decades.
European-born entrepreneur John Szangolies built the multi-faceted Urban Purveyor Group brand over the past several decades, having first opened the Löwenbräu Keller in 1976. It now spans NSW, Victoria and Queensland. Szangolies finalised the deal with Quadrant last week.
PubTIC was unable to secure further details on the impressive expansion plans prior to this publication.
For more on 2015 pub transactions, see PubTIC’s latest magazine for the ultimate pub real estate run-down. Click here to view online.