High Road restaurant becomes latest victim of recession

Following months of financial difficulty rumours, Tootsies today became the latest victim of the recession as it fell into administration.

Parent company Clapham House Group, who also own Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Real Greek chains, withdrew their funding to free up capital to invest in developing their other 'more successful' brands.

In a statement Clapham House said “Given the current economic outlook and the prolonged downturn in trading and profitability at the Tootsies business, the Clapham House board believes that there is little prospect of the Tootsies business as a whole generating a profit in the near future. As a result, and after extensive review, the solvent restructuring of the Tootsies business is not considered to be a viable solution.”

The sale of 11 of the 21 Tootsies restaurants has already been agreed by administrators BDO in an estimated £2.5m deal with High Road competitor Giraffe.

“This is a deal that will transform Giraffe and it shows how ambitious we are for the business.” Giraffe's Luke Johnson told industry publication Caterer.

The company plans to rebrand the Tootsies sites over the coming months however it is not yet known if the Chiswick branch was included in the deal or if indeed W4 is big enough for two Giraffes.

October 12, 2009