Hello Rainmakers,
Hospitality is tough right now, so fair play to Roy Ellis and the team at Mission Mars, and investor BGF, which has sold the multi-site Rudy’s pizza joints and its mega profitable Schloss beer halls to private equity buyer using Saudi money. More on this and other notable deals below.
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BGF has successfully exited Manchester-based hospitality operator Mission Mars, which operates Rudy’s Napoletana and Albert’s Schloss.
The deal marks a full exit for BGF, which first invested in Mission Mars in 2018.
Since then, BGF has supported the group’s growth from a single branch of pizza restaurant Rudy’s in Manchester to 44 sites across the UK. Its highly profitable alpine-style beer hall Albert’s Schloss concept operates in Manchester, London, Liverpool and Birmingham.
The exit has generated a return for BGF of 3.75x MM and an IRR of 21%.
Fynveur, an investment holding based in Luxembourg, owned by Saudi fund Artal and advised by Invus, has acquired a majority stake in Mission Mars, to accelerate the further roll-out of both brands.
Mission Mars has delivered impressive growth through fiscal year 2026, with five new openings all trading ahead of expectations.
For the year to 28 September 2025, Mission Mars reported turnover of £116.5 million, up from £92.9 million, and pre-tax profit of nearly £7.2 million, against £2.5 million a year earlier. Rudy’s contributed £62.2 million and the bars business £53.8 million.
The group opened seven Rudy’s pizzerias during the year, in Prestwich, Newcastle, Leamington Spa, West Bridgford, Clapham Common, Bristol and Brighton. Finance director Michael Woolley said most of the openings beat expectations from day one, TheBusinessDesk.com previously reported.
Several further openings are planned in the near term, including the first Rudy’s in Scotland, opening in Glasgow later this month. The group currently employs more than 1,800 people.
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Wirral-based Baker & Baker has bought into Scotland with a deal for North Lanarkshire-based ‘free-from’ specialist Lazy Day Foods.
This is the second acquisition since becoming a standalone bakery products business, following the acquisition of a Pastel de Nata facility in Portugal during 2022.
Baker & Baker has now expanded its UK manufacturing footprint to five sites, increasing its overall employee headcount to 2,650 people.
Elsewhere, growing accountancy and advisory firm Wbg has acquired insolvency and restructuring specialist Dunedin Advisory.
Founded in 2009 and an employee-owned business since 2020, the Dunedin deal adds an office in Glenrothes, predominantly servicing the east of Scotland.
Glasgow-headquartered Wbg now has 190 employees across eight offices across the UK and Ireland, with a plan to achieve £50m in fee income through organic growth and acquisitions.
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Chinese apparel group ATG Brands & Data has acquired the rights to the established outdoor brand from Derby-based Equip Outdoor Technologies, with plans to relaunch it across the UK and Europe.
The deal sees Lowe Alpine head for new territory, although no staff, stock or premises are changing hands.
John B Gearing will lead the brand’s return through Lowe Alpine Europe, bringing more than 25 years of experience in the global consumer brands sector.
For Equip, the sale means a sharper focus on growing its Rab brand internationally.
Founded in 1967, Lowe Alpine is now preparing to get back on the trail with a new owner and fresh ambitions.
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Wolverhampton logistics group northstarr is stacking up its ambitions after acquiring United Pallet Network (UPN) to create what it says is the UK’s largest pallet network.
UPN joins Northstarr’s existing Pallet-Track operation, taking their combined annual volumes beyond 6.3 million pallets.
The two networks will keep their own identities and membership models, but will now share the backing of the wider group.
Founded in 2001, UPN has more than 100 UK members, a 300,000 sq ft hub near Lichfield and its head office in Leicester.
Northstarr chief executive Stuart Godman said: “UPN and Pallet-Track will continue to run as independent networks, each retaining its own identity, and both will be stronger together for being part of the same family.”
UPN managing director Dave Brown added: “Joining northstarr gives us the backing and the broader set of services to help our members grow their own businesses, while retaining the UPN brand, culture and service our members and customers value.”
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An established Yorkshire business which supplies 85 per cent of Britain’s gritters and snow ploughs to councils and private contractors has caught the eye of a major player in the US. Ripon-headquartered Econ Engineering has been acquired by New York Stock Exchange-listed industrial manufacturing company, Alamo Group. Econ Engineering has around 250 staff and makes equipment used in year-round road maintenance, including gritters, de-icing and snow-clearance vehicles, road patching and repair equipment and multi-purpose vehicle systems.
Alamo Group, which reported an annual turnover of approximately $1.6bn in 2025, says the takeover supports its strategy to expand its Industrial Equipment portfolio while giving it a stronger platform in the UK. While Econ Engineering’s main manufacturing base is in Ripon, it also has engineering hubs in Alloa, Scotland; Sowerby, Thirsk; Halesworth, Suffolk; and Cardiff.
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A graduate in robotics whose friend was hit by an e-scooter has raised funding to develop AI technology that improves the vehicles’ safety.
Faizan Mir, 24, secured the £350,000 investment from SFC Capital for his company Nearhuman, which is based in the Launch Space incubator at UWE Bristol’s (University of the West of England) Enterprise Zone.
The business has developed an intelligent safety camera that fits inside the stem of rental e-scooters and uses artificial intelligence to record information about customer journeys.
The forward-facing camera module can detect pavement riding, close calls with pedestrians and road hazards as they happen.
Mir said: “The hire e-scooters and bikes are making cities much better – they are an eco-friendly mode of transport – but there are a lot of safety issues with them.”
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