Cassiopea Partners advises Permira
on the acquisition of Gruppo La Piadineria
Cassiopea Partners is pleased to announce that acted as financial advisor to Permira Funds (“Permira”) for the acquisition of the control of the share capital of Gruppo La Piadineria S.r.l. (“La Piadineria” or the “Company”) from IDeA Taste of Italy, Italian fund specialized in the food sector managed by DeA Capital Alternative Funds SGR.
Founded in 1994, La Piadineria is the leader in Italy in the fast-casual market, which is developing rapidly in Italy and in Europe. Today, La Piadineria is one of the few Italian fast casual chains that have been able to develop their activity on national scale and to start to affirm their model abroad. The formula proposed in the stores branded “La Piadineria” is based on the offer of over 30 types of piadina, prepared with a dough entirely produced in the Montirone (BS) plant. The piadinas are cooked and stuffed at the moment according to the customer’s request, with fresh ingredients always purchased from Italian suppliers to ensure the highest quality of the product.
The Group is led by the CEO Donato Romano, under whose leadership, in the last four years La Piadineria has doubled its store network, tripling its turnover – the Company is expected to generate in 2017 about € 60 million in turnover and about € 20 million EBITDA. La Piadineria is currently present in Italy with 165 restaurants located in shopping centers and urban areas mainly in the North and Centre of Italy; in 2017, the Group successfully opened the first two restaurants in France (in Nice and Marseille).
Permira will support the management team of La Piadineria in a growth path in Italy and abroad, with the dual objective of expanding the customer base and consolidating the brand’s identity.
Fabrizio Carretti, head of Italy for Permira, commented: “In recent years, La Piadineria has distinguished itself thanks to a business model that combines the offer of a high quality product oriented to consumer tastes, with competitive prices and efficient management of the stores network. We strongly believe in the management team led by Donato Romano, who has already achieved important results in terms of growth. We will support La Piadineria as we enter new markets, and we will put our experience in the sector and our international network at the service of the Company”.