Quilvest Private Equity has sold YO! Sushi, the Japanese conveyor-belt fast-casual restaurant chain, to Mayfair Equity Partners in a GBP82 million.
Quilvest acquired a controlling stake in YO! Sushi in March 2008, backing the Company’s management team led by Robin Rowland, then Chief Executive and now Executive Chairman of the group. With a long history and track-record of investing in and growing restaurant businesses at a global level, Quilvest identified YO! Sushi as a “category-killer” concept in the UK fast casual restaurant sector.
Over the last seven years, YO! Sushi has undergone transformational growth, with net revenues almost tripling and recording a compound annual growth rate of 14 per cent under Quilvest’s ownership and stewardship. The Company’s UK restaurant estate has grown from approximately 30 mostly London-centric sites to 75 units today spread across the entire UK.
The Company has also successfully expanded internationally, in existing territories such as the Middle East as well as in new territories such as Norway, Denmark and more recently the US, where Quilvest actively supported the Company in structuring and setting up its US expansion strategy including the opening to-date of four company-owned restaurants in Florida and New Jersey.
