Leon lost £60m in five years

Leon lost more than £60m in the five years since being taken over by EG Group, according to an administrators report.

Begbies Traynor and Quantuma Advisory were appointed in December to take the business through a company voluntary arrangement (CVA) and renegotiate with creditors.

Their report has revealed that, despite a CVA in 2023 the business still recorded a £12.5m loss for that year, followed by a loss of £8.3m in 2024.

John Vincent, who co-founded the business in 2004 before it was sold to EG Group for £100m in 2021 and integrated into Asda in 2023, bought it back in October 2025.

Prior to the appointment of the administrators in December, Leon traded from 43 sites. Leading up to the administration seven sites which “represented a significant cash drain” were closed, with a further 15 closed since, resulting in 244 job losses.

The fast casual business now operates from 21 sites with 573 employees.

Since the appointment of the administrator the company has reported total sales of £4.17m from directly owned and operated Leon sites and a further £251,341 from five franchise operations for 10 December 2025 to 30 January 2026.

It has incurred direct costs of £5.3m in those seven weeks, registering a trading deficit of £2.7m.

The report said that Leon owes £2.5m to HMRC and a further £7.8m to trade creditors.

Administrators said: “A CVA proposal is considered the best outcome for creditors and will achieve a rescue of the company as a going concern.”