HIG Europe, the European affiliate of private equity firm HIG Capital, has completed the acquisition of Café & Té and Panaria, two bakery, coffee-shop and tapas bar operators in the Spanish foodservice market.
Café & Té is a Spanish coffee-shop and tapas bar operator with a network of 147 points of sale with 101 directly operated stores (DOS). Café & Té Group operates, amongst others, through the following brands: Café & Té, Café & Tapas, Il Caffè di Roma, Kroxan and Sky Madrid.
Panaria was founded in 2010. In four years Panaria has developed a network of more than 60 coffee shops with 10 DOS. Panaria will contribute to the group the brands Panaria, Bocados, LaBurgin, and Charlotte, the recently acquired coffee shop franchise network with 40 franchisees.
The new group will have more than 247 stores, of which approximately one-half will be DOS and the remainder franchises.
Antonio Pérez, founder and CEO of Panaria, will continue to own an equity stake in the company and will become CEO of the resulting entity. Gustavo Ron, founder of Café y Té, will continue supporting Pérez as a director of the combined company.
Jaime Bergel, managing director of HIG Europe, says: “We are very pleased to back the combination of Café & Té and Panaria, two very successful concepts in the Iberian foodservice industry, which have proven resilient in face of a competitive environment. We fully support management’s vision of building a leading platform in Spain through internal and external growth opportunities.”
