The owners of Gail’s, the chain of bakeries and coffee shops, are preparing to hire advisers for a sale that would value it at well over the £200m price tag at which it changed hands nearly three years ago.
Sky News understands that Bain Capital Credit and EBITDA Investments, a fund backed by serial restaurant investor Henry McGovern, are drawing up plans to appoint bankers, potentially before the end of this year.
Gail’s, which is also part-owned by Luke Johnson, the former Channel 4 chairman and prominent entrepreneur, has grown rapidly in recent years.
Part of Bread Holdings, its sister company, The Bread Factory, is a leading independent bread producer supplying premium customers and supermarkets.
The group changed hands in September 2021 in a transaction valued at more than £200m.
At the time, Gail’s had just over 70 bakeries trading across the country, with that figure now standing at more than 100.
Although concentrated in London, it now has sites in locations such as Brighton and Oxford.
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Sources said a formal sale process was unlikely to take place until next year.
Mr Johnson’s Risk Capital Partners initially partnered with Gail’s co-founder and chief executive, Tom Molnar, in 2011.
Bain Capital declined to comment, as did Mr Johnson.
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