Beeton Rumford sold in MBO

Earls Court and Olympia Group has sold its in-house catering company, Beeton Rumford, to a management buy-out team led by Andy Hardy, Alex Sanderson and Geoffrey Goodman.

Hardy has been managing director of Beeton Rumford for four years. Sanderson and Goodman are the company's executive chef and marketing director respectively.

The sale includes a five-year exclusive agreement to run the hospitality, function and exhibitor catering at Earls Court and Olympia as well as contracts held by Beeton Rumford to run function and hospitality catering at other London venues and events.

It also covers the operation at Vicarage Road, Watford - home of Watford football club - and Saracens rugby club, where Beeton Rumford runs the hospitality and public retail catering.

Earls Court and Olympia has retained ownership of the retail catering outlets at both exhibition centres and will be bringing in high-street operators to run them. It hopes to announce the signing of the first lease shortly.