City bar and restaurant changes hands | Commercial property law
with help from Thursfields Solicitors
Thursfields Solicitors has helped a prominent Worcester bar and restaurant achieve a seamless transition to new ownership.
The Worcester office has helped Catering Group (Midlands) Ltd, owned by Louise and Nicholas Fenton, acquire Primo Bar and Dining from the Cokaj family that founded the popular venue in February 2016.
The couple already own and run Bromsgrove-based Fire Safe Services Ltd and have already diversified into property, opening two luxury apartments for short term rental in Worcester under the trading name Boutique Suites last year.
And now the team at Thursfields has helped them expand their business interests into the bar and restaurant marketplace.
Louise Fenton said: “With Primo being offered on the market, we saw that there was an opportunity to take on a successful local business, and with Thursfields’ help we have been able to achieve a seamless transition into new ownership.
We have retained the existing staff and will in time look to develop the business and our product offering with a view to making Primo Bar and Dining even more successful.”
There are plans to expand the scope and offering at Primo during 2019 and Mrs Fenton said they were already actively recruiting keen and enthusiastic team members.
She added: “Our business Fire Safe Services has been established for more than 15 years and has a good management team in place, and this has given us the scope to step to one side and look for further business opportunities.”
And she praised the team at Thursfields for achieving completion in just six weeks, against a provisional estimate by her former legal advisers of at least three months.
She said: “Collectively Thursfields did an amazing job. Individually, the team members exceeded all expectations and I have never worked with such professional lawyers before. This enabled us to complete on the timescale we wanted and an early completion to take advantage of the late Christmas trading period has been of significant commercial value to the project as a whole.”
The Thursfields’ team was led by Corporate Senior Associate, Tim Edwards, who was assisted by colleagues Lisa Kemp, who advised on employment matters, and Stewart Coles who advised on the property aspects and the assignment of the lease to Catering Group (Midlands) Ltd.
Tim Edwards said: “Primo Bar and Dining is a vibrant cocktail bar and restaurant offering seasonal English cuisine which has proven to be a very successful formula.
It is located at 55 Sidbury in Worcester and is therefore well placed to take advantage of the recently redeveloped Cathedral Plaza retail mall which is something of a shopping magnet in this part of the city.”
If you are buying or selling a business please contact Tim Edwards on 01905 677059 or email tedwards@thursfields.co.uk
Thursfields solicitors are available at any of our offices and surrounding areas –Birmingham, Worcester, Kidderminster, Solihull, and Halesowen.
