Caffè Nero

Caffè Nero is an Italian-influenced coffeehouse company headquartered in London, England. Founded in 1997 by Gerry Ford, currently the company runs more than 1,000 coffee houses in eleven countries: the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, Cyprus, Croatia, Turkey, the UAE, Oman, and the United States. In 2009 Caffè Nero bought and opened its own coffee roastery in Battersea, south London, which supplies the coffee to all its coffee houses worldwide.

Caffè Nero Ltd is majority owned, through a chain of intermediary companies, including UK-based Nero Group Holdings Ltd and Luxembourg-based Rome Intermediate Holdings Sarl, by Gerry Ford. The company successfully dismissed a hostile takeover attempt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

History

In 1997, Gerry Ford led a small group of investors in the purchase of 5 London coffee outlets. Gerry Ford subsequently completely redesigned those units, introduced gourmet coffee, and a new fresh food menu and brand identity, thereby establishing the Caffè Nero brand as recognized today. At the same time the signature coffee house blend – Classico – was introduced, and has gone on to receive awards for its quality. The Classico blend is still served in every store today.

In March 2001 Caffè Nero joined the London Stock Exchange under the symbol CFN. In early 2007, the company was the subject of a management buy-out by the newly formed Rome Bidco Ltd and taken private. The company expanded to Turkey in 2007, the UAE in 2009, Poland in 2012, Cyprus in 2013, Ireland and the United States in 2014, Croatia in 2017, Oman in 2018 and Sweden.

In 2013, Caffè Nero's coffee was rated best-tasting among five major UK brands by experts at the independent consumer magazine ''Which?''

In June 2016, the Caffè Nero Group completed the purchase of the Harris + Hoole business from Tesco, with 43 sites, and in January 2019 the Group expanded further by completing the purchase of the majority shareholding of the 100-strong coffee chain Coffee#1 located in Wales, South West England and the Midlands from SA Brains. The deal gave Caffe Nero a 67% majority stake in the business; in February 2022, Caffe Nero purchased the remaining 33%.

In 2020, like many businesses in the hospitality sector, Caffè Nero suffered from poor trading conditions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the second lockdown in November 2020, the company proposed entering a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) with its creditors. Ford hoped that successful renegotiation of rent agreements with landlords, and a reduction in overall costs, would enable the company to rebuild its business when the pandemic ended; more than 90% of creditors voted in favour in November 2020. The CVA was approved the day after Caffè Nero confirmed it had rejected an unsolicited takeover approach from the brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa, who are behind the EG Group, stating that they had "clear intention" to disrupt the CVA "as a precursor to opportunistically acquiring the company at a later date."

In September 2021, the high court dismissed the challenge against the CVA, brought by a landlord with the backing of the Issa brothers, with Mr Justice Green ruling that the company had "acted in good faith, in accordance with their professional duties and reached a perfectly reasonable decision that it was not in the best interests of the creditors to postpone the CVA process".

In January 2022, Caffè Nero completed a £330m refinancing to give it a platform for future growth and development as well as the ability to resume its new store-opening programme as the business continued its recovery from the effects of the pandemic.

In August 2022, Caffè Nero was awarded a Princess Royal Award For Outstanding Workplace Training in recognition of the impact of its workplace leader development courses.

Controversies

Caffè Nero had not paid any corporation tax in the UK since 2007 on sales of £2 billion and had been subject to criticism, although the BBC
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