Popular UK restaurant chain Cote is searching for new investors, sparking alarm across the hospitality sector amid ongoing financial pressures worsened by the pandemic. The French restaurant chain, which once operated close to 100 locations, now trades from just over 70 sites across the UK.
Sources say roughly 60 of those remaining are profitable, suggesting further closures are inevitable as the business faces mounting challenges. Partners Group, the private equity firm which took control of Cote during the height of the pandemic, is launching an auction of the business, reported Sky News.
Partners Group bought Cote out of administration in autumn 2020 for around £55m.
Sources familiar with the sale say the company’s last reported turnover exceeded £150m.
The decision to begin an auction comes at a difficult time for the hospitality sector, which continues to suffer from the aftershocks of the pandemic and rising costs.
Many venues have struggled to return to pre-pandemic trading levels, and the industry is now grappling with higher wages, inflation, and ongoing uncertainty over consumer confidence.
Kate Nicholls, chair of UK Hospitality, warned: “If we carry on with these trends and the situation doesn’t improve — and clearly Rachel Reeves’s statements are giving a signal to consumers that it is not going to get better any time soon — then I would see this accelerating.”
She added: “Unless there is a change of tack by the Government, we are looking at 150,000–200,000 fewer workers in hospitality during the first full year of [employer National Insurance contribution] changes.”
The looming closures at Cote underline the fragile state of the UK hospitality sector, which has faced relentless pressure from pandemic lockdowns, soaring costs, labour shortages, and shifting consumer behaviour.
Partners Group and Interpath Advisory, the firm managing the sale, both declined to comment.