Tragus Ltd.
 |
|
| Private | |
| Industry | Hospitality |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Headquarters | London, England |
|
Area served
|
United Kingdom |
|
Key people
|
Charles Gurassa, Chairman Steve Richards, CEO |
| Products | Bella Italia, Café Rouge, Belgo |
| Revenue | £277.4 million (2010/11) |
| £41.2 million (2010/11)) | |
|
Number of employees
|
7,000+ |
| Website | www.tragusgroup.com |
Tragus was a UK limited company operating over 295 restaurants under the Café Rouge, Belgo, and Bella Italia brands. It was backed by The Blackstone Group private equity firm.
In March 2015, they purchased the Las Iguanas and La Tasca chains, and were renamed the Casual Dining Group.
Tragus Holdings was formed in 2002 when Whitbread sold-off 153 failing restaurants from its Pelican and BrightReasons divisions, shortly after writing their value down by £147m. At the time, the two restaurant divisions comprised the Café Rouge, Bella Pasta, Mamma Amalfi, Abbaye, Leadenhall Wine Bar and Oriel brands.
A £25mmanagement buy-in by Tragus Holdings was funded by £11m from venture capitalist speculators ECI group. Tragus Holdings was led by Chief Executive Finlay Scott, formerly head of the Aroma café chain and Whitecross Dental Care. The team included Gavin Williams, managing director of Bella Pasta, and Harry Morley, former finance director of Whitecross Dental Care.
In January 2005, Tragus' directors sold the company to Legal & General Ventures for £90m-£95m. The sale made them around £18m profit. The chairman, discredited former LSE CEO Gavin Casey, received £2m. Legal & General Ventures installed a new management team which included appointing new Chief Executive Graham Turner (formerly Managing Director of the Unique Pub Company).
In December 2006, Tragus was bought by Blackstone Group for £267m. By that time, the business had grown to 163 restaurants.
The group expanded rapidly in 2007 with the purchase of Ma Potters restaurant company in February for £14.15m, and the Strada chain in May - which included five Belgo and Bierodrome restaurants - for £140m, In July, Tragus signed a deal with Center Parcs to operate a number of restaurants in the leisure village operator's UK sites.
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Wikipedia