Gresham House confirms its investment in Rockfish, the seafood restaurant group founded by Mitch Tonks, ahead of a planned three openings in 2019. Rockfish has five well-established coastal sites in the South-West and also owns the Seahorse restaurant in Dartmouth, which consistently ranks as one of the best restaurants in the country.
The company, which is chaired by Will Beckett, co-founder of Hawksmoor, has been preparing to grow the business from 6 – 16 units over a four-year period and has identified a number of suitable locations in the South of England, starting with Exeter Quays in March this year.
Mitch and his board, which also includes Henry Dimbleby (ex-Leon & London Union), Steve Leadbeater (ex-Findus and 2 Sisters Food Groups) & John Barnes (ex-La Tasca and Harry Ramsden), received a number of approaches for investment in the business, and ultimately chose Gresham House as a minority investor. The business has had an excellent 2018, with double-digit increases in LFL trading – bucking the trend of negative news in the sector.
Mitch Tonks, CEO: “Our goal at Rockfish is to change the way people experience seafood in the UK, and I’m delighted that the Gresham House Ventures team has bought into our vision and our ethos of sustainable sourcing, local seafood cooked on the day it was landed and strong ethical and community values.”
Mitch and the team at Rockfish have developed a fantastic seafood offering that really resonates with customers, with high-quality cooking, sustainable and locally sourced ingredients, all delivered from superb waterside locations. The Gresham House Ventures team actively supports investment in the hospitality sector and we are looking forward to bringing that experience to the Rockfish team’s goals of growing a business which is one of the industry’s real success stories.
– Tom Makey, Associate Director at Gresham House Ventures
Headline
The Gresham House Ventures team invests equity of up to £5m in growth businesses, supporting founders with bold ambitions for the future, whilst providing transformational capital and expertise to accelerate business potential.
