The struggle to keep customers in the casual dining sector is no problem for Patisserie Holdings, which is pondering a bid worth up to £150m for the company that owns Gail’s, an upmarket chain of artisan bakeries.
A deal would bring together two companies in which Luke Johnson, the serial leisure sector investor, is chairman. He owns 39% of Patisserie Holdings, the listed company that operates more than 150 Patisserie Valerie stores in the UK and Ireland.
He is also a 60% shareholder in Bread Holdings, which runs 38 Gail’s bakeries, all but five of them in London, and a wholesale business called Bread Factory.
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