Honest Burgers secures £2.7m from shareholders

Restaurant group Honest Burgers received a £2.7m injection of capital from shareholders to help it survive the pandemic, documents show.

Accounts for the burger brand, which runs 45 sites across the UK, said the coronavirus lockdowns had a ‘significant’ impact on the company.

Honest Burgers secured £5m through the government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) in two tranches, of which £1.5m was used to partially repay an existing loan. Its parent company Honest Group also received an additional £4m funds from shareholders to support it through the crisis.

The group has agreed a revised covenant position with its bankers, including the deferral of repayments on its loans and Capex facility until July 2021.

It has forecast it may breach its covenants within the next 12 months, but Honest Burgers’ directors said Santander, which first provided growth capital to the brand in 2013, has remained ‘supportive’ of the business. The burger brand ‘fully expects’ to renegotiate its covenants in spring 2021.

The restaurant chain pivoted to a delivery model during the pandemic and opened four dark kitchens in 2020 in London’s Canary Wharf, Earlsfield, Croydon and Wood Green. It continues to explore growth opportunities and has further committed sites in the pipeline.

Honest Burgers started out catering for outdoor events and opened its first permanent restaurant in London’s Brixton in 2011.