Byron Burger Files for Administration

Future of Chiswick branch dependent on buyer being found for business

Byron Burgers on Chiswick High Road. Picture: Google Streetview

Another Chiswick restaurant faces an uncertain future following the news that Byron Burger is appointing administrators.

The High Road outlet is one of 52 branches the chain has across the country. The Chiswick branch opened in 2014 on the site of the former Cafe Rouge on the High Road.

Going into administration means that the company gains protection from creditors while a rescue deal can be arranged. It is believed that there is a chance that the business could be sold as a going concern by the administrators KPMG.

The accountancy firm has been looking for a buyer for Byron Burger for several weeks. They will now be offering the rights to the brand to any buyer who will also be able to cherry pick the parts of the business they want. It is likely that any deal would require job losses and closures.

Any branch that is part of a deal or considered a saleable asset may still reopen in mid-July as planned.

KPMG restructured the business in 2018 when the Chiswick branch avoided closure and investment firm Three Hills Capital Partners became the biggest shareholder. The number of branches was reduced from 67.

Byron was set up after Tom Byng spent a four year stint in America as a student where he "ate enough hamburgers to sink the Titanic." When he returned to London in 2007, he felt there weren't any restaurants offering burgers like those at his favourite American diner, The Silver Top. He is sometimes referred to as the "bourgeois Burger King."

The restaurant was named partly after the poet, and partly because 'byron' is Old English for cowshed.

Byron Burger has declined to comment.

July 2, 2020