Slug firm eats Be At One

Novus, backed by Hayfin Capital Management and advised by Sapient Corporate Finance, is keeping ten Balls Brothers outlets and three Tank & Paddle sites.

Slug & Lettuce owner Stonegate’s acquisition of 33-bar Be At One, which serves no food, comes nine months after its £101million offer for vodka and rum bars operator Revolution was knocked back.

It now has a total of 739 venues. Be At One will operate as a standalone format and all the operational management team and head office staff will be retained.

The founding directors, three former TGI Fridays barmen Rhys Oldfield, Steve Locke and Leigh Miller who opened the first Be At One bar in Battersea, south London, in 1998 with car loans and credit cards will step away from the business.

The rest of the management team will stay on to run Be At One as a separate unit within Stonegate, which is backed by TDR Capital.

Simon Longbottom, the chief executive of Stonegate, said that he would seek more acquisitions rather than a possible IPO.