Restaurant to carry on trading even though administrators have been appointed

A city centre restaurant is to stay open for business even though the administrators have been called in.

Randall & Aubin was being run as a franchise operation by its parent company in London.

But after the current owners hit problems the parent company has decided to step in and keep the restaurant open.

The restaurant on Bridge Street specialises in seafood and opened a little over a year ago.

The brand, which is co-owned by TV chef Ed Baines and business partner Jamie Poulter, started life as a butchers in Soho in 1911 and has been operating as a restaurant in Soho for the last 20 years.

The Randall & Aubin restaurant in Soho has been operating successfully in Soho since 1996 but has struggled in Manchester.

The Manchester business has accumulated losses of £669,000 despite having a turnover of £1.44m.
Insolvency practitioners CFS Restructuring had been appointed to oversee the sale.

But Ed Baines has said he and his business partner Jamie Poulton will take over the restaurant.

He said: “This is a very popular restaurant and we want to keep it open.

“We are not closing the restaurant, the franchise did not work out so we will be taking over but it is business as usual as far as we are concerned.”

Randall and Aubin is the second restaurant in the city to hit problems in the space of a week.

The Infamous Diner in the Northern Quarter has gone into liquidation.