End of an era as Richoux-owner Dining Street floored by lockdown ‘hammer blow’

The Richoux brand was first launched in London in 1909 (Google)

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21 January 2021

Dining Street, the firm behind London’s century-old Richoux afternoon tea rooms and a string of commuter-belt restaurants, is to close all 15 of its sites with the loss of almost 150 jobs.

A cut above

Dining Street

The company, which has two subsidiaries Richoux and Newultra, today confirmed it has gone into administration, describing the latest lockdown measures as a “hammer blow”.

The firm is headed by Prezzo founder Jonathan Kaye, who joined Richoux — which has sites in Mayfair and on Piccadilly — as chief executive back in 2016. Company shareholders voted to quit the AIM market in early 2019.

Newultra is behind the Villagio —which has a London site in Hammersmith — and brands Zintino, Friendly Phil’s and The Broadwick, which operate branches across the commuter belt.

A total of 147 staff across the group were told yesterday that they were being made redundant. KPMG’s Will Wright and Steve Absolom have been appointed joint administrators, and are “exploring options for a sale of the business and its assets”.

The company said that “the pressure on the cash position became such that the directors took the difficult decision to appoint joint administrators”.

Dining Street

KPMG partner Will Wright said: “The current plight of the UK’s hospitality sector cannot be underestimated.

"Despite the breadth of support packages available, the reality is that the latest lockdown measures have proven to be a hammer blow for many businesses which, like the Dining Street group of companies, continue to accrue creditor liabilities while seeing little to no revenues coming in.”

It comes after research compiled for the Evening Standard found more than 800 chain restaurants, bars and coffee shops have closed since the start of the Covid pandemic.

When administrations and Company Voluntary Arrangements are included, chains with 6231 outlets have been affected, compared with 593 closed during the two previous years - which included the one-off corporate shakeups at Patisserie Valerie and The Restaurant Group.

Kaye, who is the cousin of brothers Adam and Sam Kaye, who founded the Ask and Zizzi chains, sold Prezzo in 2015 for more than £300 million.

Richoux - from Mayfair to the Middle East

Richoux restaurants have been tickling the fancy of London’s more discerning afternoon tea takers since the first branch opened on Baker Street in 1909.

Mr Richoux - first opened his tea room and restaurant with a vision to “fuse together his French heritage with his British surroundings”. He made sure to source all his teas and ingredients from select suppliers.

The restaurants were later bought out, and eventually became owned by Richoux Group PLC, which was listed on London’s AIM market until February 2019. It was then returned to private ownership under Dining Street.

After several closures in 2018, there were just two Richoux restaurants left in London pre-Covid, with another in Port Solent. Until recently there were also branches on Gloucester Road and on Circus Road in St John’s Wood.

Richoux restaurants were open all day, and became a destination for friends’ afternoon teas, or to hold business meetings in calm surroundings. As restaurants, they did not often receive huge public fanfare, but remained a bastion on Piccadilly - a street home to some of London’s most prime real estate.

Back in October 2019, entrepreneur Julian Richer joked to the FT that the Mayfair branch of Richoux was his favourite restaurant, and that he went there so often he thought of it as his “global headquarters”.

Richoux restaurants, run as franchises, are still open in Doha and Muscat and are not affected by the administration.

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