Tim Bacon and Aiden Byrne sign up 21 investors for Manchester House restaurant
An innovative investment scheme backing a new Manchester fine dining restaurant with Aiden Byrne at the helm has already attracted 21 individuals, each willing to pay £25,000 to take a stake, it has emerged.
News of the scheme to raise £750,000 towards the £2.4m Manchester House project in Spinningfields by offering 30 investors a 1% stake of £25,000 each emerged earlier this week.
Tim Bacon, managing director of the 27-strong Living Ventures group of bars and restaurants, launched the fundraising initiative for the standalone business just two weeks ago.
Bacon said that the funding route, which he had not used before was appropriate to the scheme because it would attract the kind of people who would also enjoy using the restaurant. He and Byrne, who has a Michelin-starred background, aim to win Manchester its first star in 33 years.
"One of the things that surprised me was the amount of interest we have had," Bacon said. "We have never ever taken investors on before or done that style of allowing individuals to invest. But a lot of people know what we do up north and they probably have a deal of confidence in the fact that it is going to work. Aiden Byrne is well known up here and he seems to tick a lot of boxes for people.
"The reason why this works so beautifully for us is that we are looking for local people. I am not interested in people from London investing in it, particularly. I want people in Manchester or that come to Manchester on a regular basis who are going to use it.
Work on the new restaurant is expected to start on 21 February, with an opening scheduled for 3 June.
Aiden Byrne teams up with Living Ventures to launch fine-dining restaurant in Manchester >>
Living Ventures plans to raise £750,000 from individual investors >>
By Neil Gerrard
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