400 jobs saved in Dirty Martini deal
Some 400 hospitality jobs have been saved thanks to Night Cap bar group’s acquisition of Dirty Martini and Tuttons Brasserie following a pre-pack administration sale for close to £5m.
The deal includes five Dirty Martini bars in London and five across Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Manchester and Cardiff.
Tuttons Brasserie, a restaurant in Covent Garden, which shares a kitchen with Dirty Martini Covent Garden, was also included in the deal.
Dirty Marini’s operator DC Limited collapsed due to tough trading conditions over the last year including the negative consequences of train strikes, the cost-of-living crisis and inflation.
“Both DC Bars and Tuttons Brasserie suffered in recent years due to the impact of lockdown and trading restrictions relating to Covid-19 and experienced tough trading conditions over the last year,” said Neil Bennett, joint administrator at Leonard Curtis, who negotiated the sale.
Night Cap, which is led by ex-Dragons Den investor Sarah Willingham already operates a number of bars across London including the Disrepute, Cocktail Club, Barrio, Tonight Josephine and Blame Gloria brands.
Willingham said: “Dirty Martini’s late-night bars operate in a similar way to ours. They have great bars in excellent locations with impressive fitouts, following over £10m of capital investment.
“We will embed the Dirty Martini site operations into our existing head office infrastructure and expect to see synergies across the business as we continue to grow.”