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Pizza Shit


spygirl

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15 hours ago, dgul said:

Perhaps the banks are just really dumb?

It isn't really banks lending to PE nowadays, it's international pension funds, "sovereign wealth funds" (oil) and insurance groups. And a lot of the time the PEs lend from one part of their empire to another i.e. lend to themselves. UK company law / limited liability was a great idea in earlier times but like a lot of things the globalists took it too far and abused it.

It should be shocking that a Chinese private equity group can borrow money from pension funds and dodgy Arabs, to bankrupt 100+ year old British companies by borrowing even more cash against it and then leg it unscathed, but it isn't really, is it? It's pretty much par for the course, all this greed. Pick 1,000 people at random in the street and ask them what they think of private equity, and 999 of them will give you blank looks. People don't understand it.

The unraveling of all this, will also be greed. Chinese private equity buyouts so far this year have collapsed by about 90%. There's still a long way to go though, as there's over $2trn sitting in PE funds unspent. Most of it comes from Saudi Arabia, China or "sovereign" wealth schemes, or pension funds.

It is easy to understand private equity if you can understand that debt is wealth.

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  • 5 months later...
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On 08/08/2019 at 12:10, spygirl said:

PizzaExpress debt in the spotlight

Casual-dining chain faces challenges in UK and overseas

https://www.ft.com/content/2658c49a-b919-11e9-8a88-aa6628ac896c


It was launched in Soho, London, in 1965 by restaurateur Peter Boizot and in 2014 was acquired for £900m by Hony Capital, a Chinese private equity group. 

In its 2018 accounts it reported net debt of £1.1bn, with interest charges of £93.1m, resulting in a pre-tax loss of £55m. 

Why in fucksake wld a Chinese PE outfit buy a pizza outfit in the UK? Other than they had a lot of bent money to flush.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/758382/pizza-express-group-revenue/

£543m gross revenue.

Assuming 50% margins, giving ~240m of gross profit. There'll be high labour costs AND ~£100m of interest to service.

Fucking nuts.

Leveraged buy out, loading debt onto the target need better rules.

Or, better, remove IR discounts from tax.

 

 

 

 

UK restaurant chains face ‘drastic Darwinian environment’

Carluccio’s was first main casualty of lockdown but others are on shaky ground

https://www.ft.com/content/69a64c29-5356-4d8a-9612-38f42e0034c2

Selections from the text:



It was the first major casualty of the coronavirus lockdown in a sector that has been struggling with some major problems for at least the past two years. Debt levels are high and there is too much competition after private equity piled into the “casual dining” market and encouraged expansion. Rents and taxes have continued to rise, as have food costs and payroll bills after the government raised the minimum wage.



“It’s a sector under some pressure. There’s been a lot of the companies struggling . . . They were overleveraged and there was over capacity in the market,” said Drew Sainsbury, restructuring partner at Ashurst, which is working on the Carluccio’s administration.



Aside from rising costs, many blame private equity for pushing expansion too far in a sector that operates on wafer thin margins.

“If a competitor is in one town, backers would ask why aren’t we in that town?” said the industry boss of the “space race” that really took off after 2010.



A restructuring consultant said the Italian chains in particular would struggle for two reasons. “One is the balance sheet, but the second is, they've been flooding the market with vouchers all these years. The only time people eat there is when they've got a voucher.” Menu prices have risen but few consumers end up paying the full bill.

 

Comments:

Personally always found Carluccio's as a restaurant average at best, the deli shops were useful for buying gifts at Christmas, the best part was the hot takeaway food at the Canary Wharf branch. Pizza Express has always been my favourite of the chains, but rarely go (unless with a voucher). The story of these chains is all so common, founded by a visionary, expand, get sold to a competitor or PE, load up with debt, expand everywhere, downward quality, service etc as excessive cost control takes over, gets flipped a couple of times, hold a gun to the head of landlords, CVA, finally go bust.......

 

Will many regret the loss of the late era PE chains?

A personal tragedy for the staff, no doubt, but I’ve spent countless weekdays patronising these chains across the regions. Most limp along on the same PE recipe: Pumped full of debt, like a truculent foie gras goose, serving lukewarm food and terminally mediocre plonk.

It’s hard not to wonder, on a wet winter’s Tuesday in Corby Prezzo, if your fellow diners are there simply because there is nowhere else.

I will mourn the independents if and when they succumb - Heritage in Liverpool, Market Kitchen at Haydock, countless others in London; each one a fond, fading memory.

 

PE - using mainly pension funding - has pretty much ruined the UK restaurant industry, pushing up rents, squeezing independents and inflicting ersatz, dumbed down food on customers, using cheap ingredients posing as 'sustainable' (eg the misleadingly named 'higher welfare' chicken which is factory produced in appalling conditions) - one upside of this crisis might be the departure of some of these awful chains, though the damage has been done - as with PE in other industries where finance, feeding on vast sums of state sanctioned pension money, has become the master, not the servant 

 

Private Equity Co's generally don't have the domain knowledge to run these kinds of business or any other business for that matter.

They bear a lot of responsibility for what has happened on the high street and elsewhere and somebody should make sure they are stopped.

 

Good riddance to most of the the PE backed types. I feel for the staff but the quality was awful and prices extortionate for the mess that was served up. Better businesses will take their place and maybe the casual dining sector will be worth dining at again in the future. The LPs/GPs won’t care either. Their minimal equity stake will mean senior credit will take most of the loss. 

 

The comment about Pe not knowing their domain i spot on. PE is mainly idiots now.

Thee used to be specific specific PE companies - still are - which coud move into certain firms and sort them out.

These ar no overwhelmed by PE idiots whose only play is leverage up and cut costs.

 

 

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4 hours ago, spygirl said:

UK restaurant chains face ‘drastic Darwinian environment’

Carluccio’s was first main casualty of lockdown but others are on shaky ground

https://www.ft.com/content/69a64c29-5356-4d8a-9612-38f42e0034c2

Selections from the text:



It was the first major casualty of the coronavirus lockdown in a sector that has been struggling with some major problems for at least the past two years. Debt levels are high and there is too much competition after private equity piled into the “casual dining” market and encouraged expansion. Rents and taxes have continued to rise, as have food costs and payroll bills after the government raised the minimum wage.



“It’s a sector under some pressure. There’s been a lot of the companies struggling . . . They were overleveraged and there was over capacity in the market,” said Drew Sainsbury, restructuring partner at Ashurst, which is working on the Carluccio’s administration.



Aside from rising costs, many blame private equity for pushing expansion too far in a sector that operates on wafer thin margins.

“If a competitor is in one town, backers would ask why aren’t we in that town?” said the industry boss of the “space race” that really took off after 2010.



A restructuring consultant said the Italian chains in particular would struggle for two reasons. “One is the balance sheet, but the second is, they've been flooding the market with vouchers all these years. The only time people eat there is when they've got a voucher.” Menu prices have risen but few consumers end up paying the full bill.

 

Comments:

Personally always found Carluccio's as a restaurant average at best, the deli shops were useful for buying gifts at Christmas, the best part was the hot takeaway food at the Canary Wharf branch. Pizza Express has always been my favourite of the chains, but rarely go (unless with a voucher). The story of these chains is all so common, founded by a visionary, expand, get sold to a competitor or PE, load up with debt, expand everywhere, downward quality, service etc as excessive cost control takes over, gets flipped a couple of times, hold a gun to the head of landlords, CVA, finally go bust.......

 

Will many regret the loss of the late era PE chains?

A personal tragedy for the staff, no doubt, but I’ve spent countless weekdays patronising these chains across the regions. Most limp along on the same PE recipe: Pumped full of debt, like a truculent foie gras goose, serving lukewarm food and terminally mediocre plonk.

It’s hard not to wonder, on a wet winter’s Tuesday in Corby Prezzo, if your fellow diners are there simply because there is nowhere else.

I will mourn the independents if and when they succumb - Heritage in Liverpool, Market Kitchen at Haydock, countless others in London; each one a fond, fading memory.

 

PE - using mainly pension funding - has pretty much ruined the UK restaurant industry, pushing up rents, squeezing independents and inflicting ersatz, dumbed down food on customers, using cheap ingredients posing as 'sustainable' (eg the misleadingly named 'higher welfare' chicken which is factory produced in appalling conditions) - one upside of this crisis might be the departure of some of these awful chains, though the damage has been done - as with PE in other industries where finance, feeding on vast sums of state sanctioned pension money, has become the master, not the servant 

 

Private Equity Co's generally don't have the domain knowledge to run these kinds of business or any other business for that matter.

They bear a lot of responsibility for what has happened on the high street and elsewhere and somebody should make sure they are stopped.

 

Good riddance to most of the the PE backed types. I feel for the staff but the quality was awful and prices extortionate for the mess that was served up. Better businesses will take their place and maybe the casual dining sector will be worth dining at again in the future. The LPs/GPs won’t care either. Their minimal equity stake will mean senior credit will take most of the loss. 

 

The comment about Pe not knowing their domain i spot on. PE is mainly idiots now.

Thee used to be specific specific PE companies - still are - which coud move into certain firms and sort them out.

These ar no overwhelmed by PE idiots whose only play is leverage up and cut costs.

 

 

You think so? These "idiots" are driving around in Ferraris and living in mansions laughing all the way to the bank. You think these "idiots" couldn't work out the sums and realise these deals were utter dog shit...but when they are taking their fat commissions on deals and salaries that they give a shit?

If a bank/pension fund gives me £500 million to buy some shitty restaurant chain and I get to keep £10 million for a few months work you're welcome to call me an idiot all day long.

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12 minutes ago, gibbon said:

You think so? These "idiots" are driving around in Ferraris and living in mansions laughing all the way to the bank. You think these "idiots" couldn't work out the sums and realise these deals were utter dog shit...but when they are taking their fat commissions on deals and salaries that they give a shit?

If a bank/pension fund gives me £500 million to buy some shitty restaurant chain and I get to keep £10 million for a few months work you're welcome to call me an idiot all day long.

This.

Greed is all encompassing now, and all anybody cares about is getting their personal profits in the bank - nobody cares about the fallout from their shitty actions.  

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  • 1 month later...

Well at least some good might come out of this whole debacle; fewer Frankie and Benny's, Garfunkels and Chiquito outlets knocking out frozen shit to the masses. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/03/frankie-and-bennys-owner-permanently-close-restaurants-restaurant-group

Even better, the article mentions the owners of Bella Pasta and Cafe Rouge are on the brink too. Obviously sad for those who'll lose their jobs, but hopefully this will create space for decent independent restaurants to move into. 

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SillyBilly
11 minutes ago, Craig said:

Well at least some good might come out of this whole debacle; fewer Frankie and Benny's, Garfunkels and Chiquito outlets knocking out frozen shit to the masses. 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jun/03/frankie-and-bennys-owner-permanently-close-restaurants-restaurant-group

Even better, the article mentions the owners of Bella Pasta and Cafe Rouge are on the brink too. Obviously sad for those who'll lose their jobs, but hopefully this will create space for decent independent restaurants to move into. 

I wouldn't count on it. Just look at the habits of people. That f**king desperate for a Big Mac or popcorn chicken when McD's and KFC re-open they will queue for miles on the 1st day. No different in non-food. Sad acts who will queue for hours to get into Ikea to buy low quality flat-pack furniture. And all no doubt still buying Chinese plastic tat and shite from Amazon and Ebay with a renewed vengeance. 

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32 minutes ago, SillyBilly said:

I wouldn't count on it. Just look at the habits of people. That f**king desperate for a Big Mac or popcorn chicken when McD's and KFC re-open they will queue for miles on the 1st day. No different in non-food. Sad acts who will queue for hours to get into Ikea to buy low quality flat-pack furniture. And all no doubt still buying Chinese plastic tat and shite from Amazon and Ebay with a renewed vengeance. 

I know, wishful thinking on my part. At least these fuckers will be first against the wall when COVID-21 kicks in. 

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On 04/04/2020 at 13:42, gibbon said:

You think so? These "idiots" are driving around in Ferraris and living in mansions laughing all the way to the bank. You think these "idiots" couldn't work out the sums and realise these deals were utter dog shit...but when they are taking their fat commissions on deals and salaries that they give a shit?

If a bank/pension fund gives me £500 million to buy some shitty restaurant chain and I get to keep £10 million for a few months work you're welcome to call me an idiot all day long.

Interesting, didn't even realise FT.com had comments... But you left out the best one !

Screenshot_2020-06-08 UK restaurant chains face ‘drastic Darwinian environment’.png

 

To be fair, the business owner does have to shoulder some of the blame, by selling out to private equity you've received a large cash lump sum and in doing so likely sacrificed the future of your business. I can't think of many restaurants that have been long-termed owned by P.E.

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  • 1 month later...

Strung up by its dough balls.

https://www.ft.com/content/0dbb09c9-b8e4-48eb-b384-40ca28b0fe92


PizzaExpress is heading for a takeover by its lenders as early as this month in a debt-for-equity swap with Chinese owner Hony Capital that is also likely to involve closing some of its high street restaurants hard hit in the pandemic.

Superior, long term investors my arse.

 

 

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On 09/08/2019 at 08:41, Craig said:

Fuck me. Four quid for a plate of dough? Told you it'd been a while since I'd visited one. 

Quite telling that they don't have the prices on their website... 

Is there anyone who pays full price in Pizza Express? We go when there's a half-price offer, as I actually think the non-pizza mains are alright, and they have crayons and activity books that keep the kids occupied without resorting to shoving an iPad under their nose.

Pizza in general is a rip-off in the UK.  Decent Margherita is less than €5 anywhere in Italy.  Why we get charged more than a tenner is beyond me.

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51 minutes ago, AWW said:

Is there anyone who pays full price in Pizza Express? We go when there's a half-price offer, as I actually think the non-pizza mains are alright, and they have crayons and activity books that keep the kids occupied without resorting to shoving an iPad under their nose.

Pizza in general is a rip-off in the UK.  Decent Margherita is less than €5 anywhere in Italy.  Why we get charged more than a tenner is beyond me.

And if anyone did actually pay full price, it'd be getting put through the till as a voucher, with the excess being pocketed by the waiting staff.

I guess cashless will have put paid to that. 

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2 hours ago, AWW said:

Is there anyone who pays full price in Pizza Express? We go when there's a half-price offer, as I actually think the non-pizza mains are alright, and they have crayons and activity books that keep the kids occupied without resorting to shoving an iPad under their nose.

Pizza in general is a rip-off in the UK.  Decent Margherita is less than €5 anywhere in Italy.  Why we get charged more than a tenner is beyond me.

Do you ever wonder why a business charging twice as much for a sub-par product still hemorrhages money and makes colossal losses?

A £10 margherita in Pizza Express will be about 60p worth of ingredients, and about £8 in staff wages, pensions, rent, utilities, nat ins, council tax/rates, marketing, franchise fees, other assorted bollocks. The product itself is a secondary consideration. Anything left over will be sucked up by private equity leeches, who are misappropriating boomers pensions to ruin entire industries.

Obviously as a consumer I have no interest in paying all of this shite on top, and you end up with the situation they are in.

 

PS: lifted from the comments, quote by Warren Buffett:

Quote

"My business partner says there are only three ways a smart person can go broke: liquor, ladies, and leverage. Now the truth is — the first two he just added because they started with L — it’s leverage."

 

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One of my first jobs was developing a pizza base transfer robot for Ross foods in Grimsby. The topping operations were already machine based and this was the last piece of the automation work.

They still had one lady at the end of the line who added a single olive in the middle of the pizza, to justify the ‘hand finished’ tag line on the packaging. xD

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12 hours ago, stoobs said:

One of my first jobs was developing a pizza base transfer robot for Ross foods in Grimsby. The topping operations were already machine based and this was the last piece of the automation work.

They still had one lady at the end of the line who added a single olive in the middle of the pizza, to justify the ‘hand finished’ tag line on the packaging. xD

As an innocent unaware of the conditions in food factories I'd always assumed everything was done by machines. It was only after working in a couple I realised just how much dirt and bodily fluids are added to everything. 

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1 hour ago, Calcutta said:

As an innocent unaware of the conditions in food factories I'd always assumed everything was done by machines. It was only after working in a couple I realised just how much dirt and bodily fluids are added to everything. 

Well that's ruined tea this evening. Was going to have a M&S pizza :(

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Lightly Toasted
11 hours ago, Calcutta said:

As an innocent unaware of the conditions in food factories I'd always assumed everything was done by machines. It was only after working in a couple I realised just how much dirt and bodily fluids are added to everything. 

 

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Tbf frozen pizzas are probably among the cleanest things, I don't know tho I've no direct experience of the conditions. I think it would be pretty hard to conceal pre-chewed toppings or a dollop of semen on a pizza. 

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And just FYI the only difference between M&S food and any other crap made in the dame factory is that M&S insist on the boxes and packaging being immaculate. The crap inside is no different from anyone else's.

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One percent
4 minutes ago, Calcutta said:

And just FYI the only difference between M&S food and any other crap made in the dame factory is that M&S insist on the boxes and packaging being immaculate. The crap inside is no different from anyone else's.

The posh m&s pizzas for about seven quid look exactly the same as the 3.50 pizzas from lidl.  

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9 minutes ago, One percent said:

The posh m&s pizzas for about seven quid look exactly the same as the 3.50 pizzas from lidl.  

The cheap M&S pizzas are actually surprisingly good. You can buy 2 pizzas and 2 sides for a tenner. I usually add a bit more cheese, some dried herbs and some olive oil and then stick in the oven on the pizza setting.

By the way, the best pizza I've ever tasted was on a camp site in Yugoslavia in the mid 80's. Cooked in a clay oven in front of the diners. Less than £1. The cafe's menu was the shortest ever. Margharita pizza or chicken and peas (which was also excellent and £1). Beers if I remember correctly were 30p!

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Chewing Grass
13 minutes ago, One percent said:

The posh m&s pizzas for about seven quid look exactly the same as the 3.50 pizzas from lidl.  

Its the same with cakes, one factory supplies multiple Supermarkets and they just change the ingredients to suit.

Note with Cakes IIRC the local factory made them for Asda, Sainsbury's, Tesco & M&S and I was told that the Tesco ones were the shite ones as Tesco were stingy on price.

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Wight Flight
16 minutes ago, Sasquatch said:

stick in the oven on the pizza setting.

Brag of the week.

Mine just has warm, quite hot and hot.

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