Valentina Restaurant Chain To Be Saved From Closure

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After city-based Italian deli owner purchases four of the local branches

Valentina, the Italian deli and restaurant which has branches in Wandsworth, has gone into administration but four of the eight London retuarants may be saved after Gazzano and Son purchased the company this week.

The Lavendar Hill and East Putney branch are due to stay open as part of the deal with Farringdon-based deli Gazzano's.

Gabriella Croci is the sole director of Gazzano and worked as senior operations manager at Vaentina restuarants. A spokesperson for the administrator said, “All employees of the company transferred to the purchaser upon sale and four of the eight shops operated by the company are continuing to trade under the new ownership.”

The restaurant group has eight restaurants in London and Surrey and started as a deli and small cafe/restaurant in East Sheen opened by Bruno Zoccola in 1991.

The move to call in the administrators insolvency firm Begbies Traynor came after the owners of Valentina took the decision to close its Reigate branch in September and its Chiswick branch a few weeks later. The company stated that the “eating industry has changed” and citing disruptive technology from the likes of Deliveroo as a factor.

The original Valentina in East Sheen was a delicatessen when it started, but when Bruno Zoccola's nephew, Fabio Arcari, joined the business nine years ago, the pair looked at opening a restaurant too. The Lavendar Hill and East Putney restaurants followed, as the business expanded to eight sites in London and the South East.

The sites that are expected to remain open are the ones in Lavendar Hill, East Putney, East Sheen and Weybridge.

October 27, 2017