Pizza chain Fireazza reported to be up for sale
Upmarket pizza delivery firm Fireazza is looking for a new investor to help it triple in size.
The company, founded in 2001, has 11 sites across London, most of which do delivery only, has been put up for sale through Alaris Capital for £6m, according to the Times.
Former Pizza Express chairman Luke Johnson is understood to be interested in the brand. Johnson's company Risk Capital Partners recently made nearly £9m from the sale of its stake in casual dining chain Giraffe following its sale to supermarket giant Tesco.
Johnson already has a a majority interest in an upmarket restaurant/delivery business in London in the form of Feng Sushi.
Firezza founder Edin Basic declined to comment. Alaris Capital confirmed that it had been appointed to sell the business, which is majority owned by Basic and Adnan Medjedovic. The pair hold 53.6%. The rest of the business is controlled by the Capital Fund, managed by London-based investor YFM, which came on board in 2004.
"The business is at the point now where it needs to go from where it is now to 30 sites because you get a central cost benefit. There are target sites to do that and London has got quite a lot of capacity. They have spent quite a lot of money identifying the sites and YFM are coming to the end of their investment. This is the start of the race, so we haven't specifically knocked on doors yet but we expect there to be a lot of interest," Stone said.
Alaris is a UK company sale specialist focused on the £2m - £15m enterprise value market. Past sector deals include the sale of Maison Blanc to Kout Food Group.
