Beringea backs new restaurant chain

VCT manager Beringea has invested £1.7 million to support the expansion of Coal Restaurants, an emerging restaurant brand with one outlet in Wimbledon and others under development.

The money is from the ProVen VCT and the ProVen Growth & Income VCT.

The venture is headed by John Gater, who also founded Ma Potter’s, a chain of 16 American-style restaurants. Ma Potter’s, which was also backed by Beringea, was recently sold to Café Rouge owner Tragus for £14.15 million, generating a return for Beringea of 2.5 times its original investment.

The Coal restaurants, most of which will be branded ‘Coal Grill & Bar’, will serve a range of grills, tapas, salads and pasta. Jeff Bocan, investment manager at Beringea, comments: ‘John Gater and his team are some of the best restaurant operators in the business. We are confident that we can build upon our success with Ma Potter’s.’

Marc Barber

Marc was editor of GrowthBusiness from 2006 to 2010. He specialised in writing about entrepreneurs, private equity and venture capital, mid-market M&A, small caps and high-growth businesses. More by Marc Barber