Knight Frank - Glasgow, Buchanan Street

Date: 29 Jun 2009

Glasgow - Global property consultancy, Knight Frank has sold City Merchant, one of Glasgow's most popular and successful restaurants.

City Merchant has been purchased by the highly successful Cafe India Group. David Reid, partner, Knight Frank handled the sale of City Merchant on behalf of the Matteo family, who opened the restaurant over 20 years ago. City Merchant was offered for sale at a price tag of £500,000 for the lease which attracted a high level of interest.

The City Merchant is located in the heart of the Merchant City is only a short walk from the famous shopping district of Buchanan Street. The popular restaurant boasts 4,500 sq ft of cover space including a large function room and is well situated in the Candleriggs area of Glasgow. The business has a turnover of around £1 million.

Abdul Sattar, owner of Cafe India Group said:'' Whilst Cafe India is one of our best known brands, we have interests in many other restaurants throughout central Scotland including The Grape Vine in the affluent area of Bothwell. It was the appeal of existing high profits and a wonderful space in arguably the best trading location in the Merchant City which appealed to us.

"We have no intention of changing City Merchant and junior members of the Matteo family will remain as active operators with Nicola Matteo as general manager, Tony Matteo Jnr as manager and front of house and Marissa Matteo supervising the kitchen. Paul Aitken will remain as head chef.

We plan to work hard to develop and look after the existing trade that Tony and Linda Matteo have established over the years. I see this acquisition as a hugely important part of my group's strategy for further growth within Glasgow City Centre'

Tony Matteo has sold the business to retire to Italy with this wife. He said: '' Linda and myself have enjoyed every minute of running City Merchant and in more recent years it has become a truly family business. Whilst we are sad to leave, we do look forward to a quieter way of life. We are absolutely delighted to have sold to Abdul and his team who will continue to invest in City Merchant allowing our regular customers to continue to enjoy the high standards they have grown accustomed to.'

David Reid, partner, Knight Frank finalised by saying: "It's rare for such an established and highly profitable business to come on the open market and we were genuinely inundated with interest from both experienced Glasgow operators and London based corporates.

"There is so much doom and gloom out there but it just goes to show that a well established and successful business can hold up against considerable new competition. There is absolutely no shortage of buyers as is proven with the sale of this top quality business."

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