Perfect Pizza - Delivery/Take-away restaurants 1997 IBO

Gresham Trust delivers slice of Perfect Pizza

New owners for fast-growing franchising company

Perfect Pizza, which has exploited the fast food market to become the leading pizza delivery and takeaway business in Britain, has been acquired by new owners in a multi-million pound deal. Perfect Pizza has nearly 200 stores nationwide, principally in London, the Midlands and the North East of England.

The management buy-in team is backed by Gresham Trust, the City of London investment house, with debt arranged by NatWest Markets. This deal brings ownership of Perfect Pizza back to the UK. The company was acquired from Laidlaw, the multi-billion dollar North American bus and truck group.

Geoff Street, previously main board director of Asda Stores and managing director of the Prontaprint franchise chain, becomes the executive chairman of Perfect Pizza. Adviser to the management team, Nick Miller of MMD Corporate Finance, becomes a non-executive director. Tony Sherriff, managing director of Perfect Pizza, will, together with his current management team, continue to run the business.

Tony Sherriff said, "Perfect Pizza is now stronger than ever and I firmly believe the new board will be one of the most experienced and dynamic teams in franchising."

Paul Marson-Smith, senior director of Gresham Trust, becomes a non-executive director of Perfect Pizza. He said of future growth, "Perfect Pizza is recognised as the leading home delivery pizza chain. With strengthened management and Gresham Trust on board we have all the ingredients for a market-topping business. We have completed this acquisition, from start to finish, in under six weeks."

Neil Scragg and Christian Bruning of Gresham Trust also worked on the acquisition.