Founder keeps restaurant chain as phoenix emerges from the flames
Restaurant group Viva Brazil has emerged as a phoenix business after fires and unsuccessful expansions put the business under unsustainable financial pressure.
The deal to save the Liverpool-headquartered group, which launched in 2010, has kept its restaurants open in Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff and Birmingham.
BDO partners Kerry Bailey and Matthew Tait had been appointed as administrators and have completed a sale to Viva Brazil founder Andy Aldrich.
He has created a new vehicle, Viva Brazil Restaurants Ltd, and said all staff have been transferred across.
Aldrich said: “Santander has been very supportive and we have agreed a new financial package with them which sees us in a new position of strength moving forward.
“We can now look forward to a secure future and I can confirm that all restaurants in Liverpool, Cardiff, Glasgow and Birmingham are performing strongly.”
Viva Brazil has endured a tough couple of years. Its Liverpool site was shut for nearly four months after a fire in August 2015, and its Glasgow restaurant also suffered from a fire.
Two expansion attempts failed – a restaurant in Aberdeen closed in January 2015 after seven months and its Newcastle site shut in September 2016 after 14 months. However it continued to look for opportunities and opened its Birmingham restaurant in May 2016, reportedy having spent £1.2m on the refurbishment of the site.
In its most recent published accounts, for the year to September 2015, its shareholders’ funds showed a deficit of £660,000.
A going concern warning in its accounts, which were signed off last June, said the company was “reliant on its shareholders who have made funds available to the business to ensure its continuation”.
