Bird secures new backing from Crown Partnership

Fried chicken and waffle chain Bird has sold a majority stake to the Crown Partnership, as part of a pre-pack administration implemented last week.

As part of the deal, the group's original Shoreditch restaurant closed on 12 August, when administrator BM Advisory was appointed.

Co-founder and managing director Paul Hemings said: "We are thrilled to have secured a better future for the brand and our amazing team. We look forward to working with Crown and being supported by their depth of experience."

It has three remaining restaurants in Islington, Stratford and Camden and hopes to open a long-awaited site in Brixton later this year.

Bird is run by two Canadians, former Credit Suisse investment banker Hemings and his wife, chef Cara Ceppetelli. Its first site opened in London’s Shoreditch in 2014, serving 100% free-range chicken from a single British farm.

Crown Partnership is a hospitality and catering business founded by Russell Morgan more than 40 years ago. As well as owning catering businesses Seasoned and Kudos, the group is a business partner with Daniel Clifford's two-Michelin-starred Midsummer House restaurant in Cambridge.