A sale of Japanese restaurant chain Yo! Sushi is on the menu after its private equity owners appointed bankers at Canaccord to explore interest in the business. The company, which is owned by Quilvest, is understood to be hoping for a price tag of around £120m, more than double the £51m the buy-out group paid for it in 2008. Sushi, founded in 1997 by entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe, brought the concept of Japanese “kaiten” sushi bars and their maki roll conveyer belts to the UK for the first time. He founded the business with an investment of £150,000. Six years later, Primary Capital backed a management buy-out of the business, led by chief executive Robin Rowland, in which Mr Woodroffe retained a 22pc stake. He sold out entirely when the business changed hands to Quilvest, but still receives a royalty worth 1pc of turnover in perpetuity. Under Quilvest’s six-year ownership, the group, which is still led by Mr Rowland, has expanded to 76 sites across the UK, with 11 franchised restaurants overseas in Dublin, Norway, Bahrain, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and the US.

The company has set its sights on opening 10 new restaurants a year. The group made £12m of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the last financial year. The sale of Yo! Sushi comes amid a wave of the UK’s most well-known restaurant chains being put up for sale. Gondola Holdings, the restaurant group behind Pizza Express, has hired Goldman Sachs and Rothschild as advisers to explore options for the business. The group, currently owned by private equity group Cinven, is likely to sell Pizza Express, which has an international presence, separately and potentially float or sell its Ask and Zizzi chains in a separate deal. Bowmark Capital is also exploring the sale of Latin American food chain Las Iguanas for nearly £100m, according to a source. Canaccord is understood to have been hired earlier this month, however, a formal sale process is unlikely to formally kick-off until later this year. Canaccord declined to comment, while Yo! Sushi and Quilvest did not respond to requests for comment.

Botanist RestaurantBar RestaurantLondon Meet EatIn LondonDrawing PickedSloane Sqaure7 SloaneSqaure LondonBotanist LondonForwardThe Botanist, Sloane Square, has an eye-catching wall mural with each rectangular botanical drawing picked out individually using fibre optic lighting by Absolute Action.Sushi Reviews Filter Filter 42 Employee Reviews Popular Rating Date Nov 28, 2016 I worked at YO! hei sushi online deliverySushi full-time Pros Free employee mealFriendly co workersGood pay Cons Low ceiling on advancement in companyUnpredictable sales forecastPoor location Jan 25, 2015 Pros Fun environment and good food Cons Good food- not a con tho Advice to Management Keep it up Jan 4, 2017 I have been working at YO! sushi online groningenSushi full-time (More than 3 years) Pros Free food on shiftDiscount when not on shiftPaid breakOpportunities to get promoted Cons This company or people in head office don't care about employees.where to buy sashimi uk

Very underpaid management team, always external people get better pay than someone who been promoted within the company.So many discounts and promotions - this shows to customers how cheap is the food actually.Extremely hard achievable bonus and no tips for management or extra pay if over working contract hours. jogo sushi cat 3Advice to Management Pay more for people as everyone working hard, also introduce TRONC system for management salaries as fixed salary makes no sense when need to over work contract hours by 10 hours a week, it's not charity job. The community relies on everyone sharing – Add Anonymous Review Dec 11, 2016 I worked at YO! Sushi part-time Pros You get free food on the job, 50% discount for you and friends who dine with you Cons Manager was quite rude to staff Advice to Management Treat staff with more respect Nov 29, 2016 I worked at YO! Sushi full-time (Less than a year) Pros -Nice and multicultural environment-Good management attitude- If you love eating sushi, that s one of the best place Cons - High work loadAs a waiter I was asked to serve people, use the till, clean the toilets, and clean the entire shop in early mornings.

Nov 15, 2016 I worked at YO! Sushi full-time (More than a year) Pros I have made some of the closest friends while working as a chef at Yo. Everyone was ready to help out other team members; we were an extremely tight-knit group of people. Especially in the beginning, I loved coming to work and it never even really felt like work since everyone got along so well and everything was running smoothly. Cons Head-office started to really cut back on budget, which meant having half the staff on busy shifts, which became an absolute nightmare. There wasn't enough floor staff to keep customers happy, and there wasn't enough of us in the kitchen to keep putting out good quality service. When these issues were brought up with Management, they were mostly ignored. Advice to Management Try and work a full busy week in the kitchen before deciding to have only 3 chefs to serve a whole restaurant of impatient customers Nov 4, 2016 I have been working at YO! Sushi part-time (More than a year) Pros Great people work thereGood food for staff on breaks Cons Poor standards in every aspect...

Sep 18, 2016 Helpful (1) Pros - Good colleagues, supporting each others, covering shifts and helpful.- Hard working and lay back managers. I've once seen a operational manager went to the pot wash to help us out as it was busy during her visit.- Good staff food allowance- Friendly customers with occational generous tip Cons - Long shift hour due to constantly being understaffed- Hard work due to the low level of support to restaurant staff and managers from the head office- Not much trainings and progressions, along with low wages. Sep 10, 2016 Pros People, food, people in YO! Are a strange but wonderful breed, it is definitely the biggest family I ever had. Cons being micro managed by Selfridges is a real low, but YO! Management are excellent, real people, listening to their teams, and acting upon it. Robin Rowland is a man with big dreams!! Advice to Management You can have a break you know, we got this! Jun 3, 2016 Pros easy to earn the money Cons the work is very hard , April 21, 2016, In Sushi Franchise USA

Home Sushi Franchise USA Start-up Cost: $727 to $1,300K Territories: World, not in the UK Lead time: 6 months helps you all along the way. Our consultants will help you find the rigt franchise and negociate the best deal with your franchisor. Before you read on, we do not offer franchises in the UK. Just incase that was your reason for checking us out. The rest of the world is your oyster (or sushi!) Simply click the USA flag for more detail on how you could join the YO! Sushi family in the USA or if you fancy opening a YO! Sushi anywhere else in the world (excl the UK) just click the Globe. One last thing, the three most important questions you must ask yourself before clicking are:- Can the territory sustain more than 5 YO! Sushi’s within a regional geographical area Do you have restaurant experience, love the food business and are prepared to put your heart and soul into the project? Do you have access to significant capital to invest in the project?