Vinoteca rescued by private equity firm

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 24 August, 2023

Wine bar group Vinoteca’s future has been secured with the purchase of the business out of administration by a private equity firm.

City-based Breal Capital stepped in to take the troubled group off the hands of administrators, saving an estimated 150 jobs, while keeping the seminal wine bar business going.

As was widely reported last week, Vinoteca had filed for protection from its creditors following very challenging trading conditions, leaving a big question mark over the future for the much-loved business.

Founded in 2005 in Farringdon by Charlie Young, Brett Woonton and Elena Ares, the group currently consists of five outlets across London, with its Birmingham offshoot having closed earlier this year.

Vinoteca was in many ways a pioneer of the modern hybrid wine bar format. It made its name by combining a great, sometimes quirky and ever-evolving wine list, with many offered by-the-glass, plus punchy Mediterranean-inspired plates of food and a very visible ‘wall of wine’ in-store to encourage off-trade sales.

Covid and then ongoing work from home, depleting footfall, followed by the cost-of-living crisis and rampant inflationary pressures, all conspired against the business – as is the case across the wider hospitality sector.

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