the times | Thursday October 15 2020 1GM 39
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buyers from next April and will
end completely in March 2023.
David O’Brien, an analyst at
Goodbody, the broker, said:
“Should sales momentum
continue to be strong and
production efficiency levels vto
run ahead of the approximate
300 units per week, there is
scope for upgrades to forecasts,
despite the current economic
and political uncertainty.”
Shares in Barratt rose 9½p, or
1.7 per cent, to 553¼p, valuing
the company at £5.6 billion.construction sites for several
weeks. Pent-up demand and the
suspension of stamp duty on
property sales of up to £500,000
until next March have led to a
rebound in the market.
Barratt said that in the period
since July 1, 51 per cent of its
private reservations — of which
74 per cent were first-time
buyers, up from 70 per cent a
year earlier — had used the
government’s Help to Buy
equity loan scheme, which will
be available only to first-timeA
leading listed
housebuilder has
reported a surge in
sales helped by the
government’s stampduty holiday and the looming
end of the Help to Buy Scheme
(Tom Ball writes).
Barratt Developments said
yesterday that it had completed
4,032 home sales between July 1
and October 11, up 24 per cent
on the same period last year.
The FTSE 100 company also
said that it had an order book of
15,135 homes, compared with
12,963 last year, at a value of
£3.64 billion, compared with
£3.07 billion in 2019.
Barratt competes for the
position of being Britain’s
biggest listed housebuilder with
Persimmon and Taylor
Wimpey. The industry
effectively was closed down
after the imposition of
lockdown in March, with
prospective buyers unable to
visit properties and companies
forced to close downGourmet Burger
Kitchen has been
sold to Boparan
Restaurant Group
in a pre-pack dealA further 362 jobs were lost in the
casual dining sector yesterday after the
closure of 26 Gourmet Burger Kitchen
outlets in a pre-pack administration.
The brand, together with 35 of its 61
sites, has been sold to the privately
owned Boparan Restaurant Group,
securing the jobs of 669 of the 1,031-
strong workforce.
GBK was acquired four years ago by
Famous Brands, the South African
owner of the Wimpy chain, for
£120 million. At the time it had about 80
restaurants, but in 2018 it shed 17 sites
via a company voluntary arrangement.
Deloitte, which is handling the
administration, said that after the CVA,
a less severe insolvency procedure,
changes had been made that had
improved the brand’s performance in
the year to February. However, post-
lockdown it had been operating on a
reduced basis, with 18 of the 61 UK out-
lets not reopening.
Gavin Maher, joint administrator,
added: “As with a number of dining busi-
Dominic Walsh nesses, the broader challenges facing
bricks-and-mortar operators, com-
bined with the effect of the lock-
down, resulted in a deteriora-
tion in financial performance
and a material funding re-
quirement.”
Boparan Restaurant
Group, part of the food
empire of the so-called
“chicken king” Ranjit Bo-
paran, has become one of
the go-to buyers of dis-
tressed restaurant busi-
nesses, acquiring brands
such as Fishworks, Carluc-
cio’s and Ed’s Easy Diner. The
purchase of Gourmet Burger
Kitchen lifts its total portfolio to
99 restaurants, with 32 franchised
outlets overseas. It said that it would
continue to operate GBK’s franchise
partnership in the United Arab Emir-
ates, where there are four franchised
outlets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Satnam Leihal, 43, managing direc-
tor of BRG, said: “This latest acquisition
is in line with our strategy to grow our
restaurant group with quality brands.
While it is an extremely challenging
time for the sector, we believe
quality hospitality businesses
will recover in the long term as
people return to eating out.”
The GBK restaurants it is
acquiring include sites in
Bath, Birmingham, Cam-
bridge, Greenwich, Liver-
pool, Oxford and Putney.
The brand was launched
in Battersea, south London,
in 2001. In 2004 it was
acquired for £10 million by
Clapham House Group, which
was swallowed by Yellowwoods
Associates in 2010 in a £40 mil-
lion deal. In April this year Famous
Brands announced it was withdraw-
ing financial support for the brand.
According to Propel Info, a trade
journal, BRG beat off competition for
the burger chain from Byron, a burger
rival, and Naveen Handa, a director of
the Cairn hospitality group. The value
of the deal was put at between £4 mil-
lion and £5 million.ges facing
s, com-
lock-
ra-
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- he
rger
lio to
nchised
atit would
s franchise
Arab Emir-
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restaurant g
While it is
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Clap
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AAssoci
lllion deal
BBBrands ann
iing financial s
According
journal BRGMore jobs lost as burger chain swallowed up
CATE GILLON/GETTY IMAGESBarratt Developments
reported a rise in
sales as the easing of
lockdown released
pent-up demand