Challenge

The Restaurant Group decided they wanted to buy Wagamama. Between concern over Brexit, increasingly volatile markets and weak consumer confidence, there’s no question that we live in uncertain times. The proposed £559million acquisition would putt stakeholder’s money and livelihoods at risk. Our challenge was help garner support for the deal and get stakeholders on board.

Solution

In the face of public criticism, we went above and beyond to ensure The Restaurant Group was on the front foot the entire way through the acquisition.

We created a PR storm of positive coverage. We leveraged our relationships with journalists to clearly communicate the acquisitions strategic rationale and long long-term growth opportunities. We made sure we found and tactically promoted any support, so that our key stakeholders wouldn’t be able to miss it.

We kept The Restaurant Group abreast of all market and media reaction with a real-time sentiment tracker. We also obtained feedback from sector analysts to ensure that everyone was aware of any key issues that needed addressing and could respond to them as quickly as possible.

Impact

The Restaurant Group received a majority vote of approval for the acquisition and Rights Issue. The deal was completed in late December 2018, despite extremely choppy markets in the midst of Brexit turmoil.