Petersham warns it may close Covent Garden outposts over rent dispute

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The owner of The Petersham and La Goccia restaurants in London’s Covent Garden has warned it could be forced to close down the sites unless landlord Shaftesbury Capital agrees to lower rents.

Petersham (UK) Limited, which operates the two restaurants and a delicatessen, and is owned by the Boglione family behind Petersham Nurseries, filed a Notice of Intention to appoint an administrator at the High Court in London on Wednesday to gain protection against creditors, including its landlord.

Such a move typically provides up to 10 days of breathing space for companies to review their options.

While the notice was “a precautionary measure”, the company has lined up Jo Milner and David Buchler of Buchler Phillips as joint administrators, it said in a statement.

Lara Boglione, director of Petersham (UK) Limited, told the Financial Times that “the impact of our rent situation cannot be underestimated, and in order for the businesses’ continued viability we need to resolve this as soon as possible, having already made extensive efforts to [have] constructive discussions with the landlord”.

Shaftesbury Capital declined to comment. Its presence in Covent Garden spans 1.4mn sq ft of lettable space across historic streets and courtyards, including hundreds of shops, bars, restaurants and cafés.

The restaurant business said it has been hammered by significant property-related costs and since a rent review in April 2023, it has been “unable to engage successfully with the landlord to agree suitable terms and proceed with new agreed payments”.

The rent dispute only affects the deli and two restaurants in Covent Garden and excludes the other operations run by the family, including its Petersham Nurseries garden centre, on the outskirts of Richmond in south-west London.

David Abramson, chair of the Commercial Tenants Association, said that rental affordability had become an issue in central London amid higher operating costs and reduced turnover. He added he “wouldn’t be surprised if we start to see other such examples happening in other areas”.

Petersham was run by an elderly couple before Francesco and Gael Boglione bought it more than two decades ago. Today the family business includes the nurseries, a farm in Devon, restaurants in London and East Sussex, as well as Petersham Cellar, a wine merchant.

Earlier this year, the garden centre restaurant, which holds a Michelin Green star, was granted permission by the council to continue its evening dinner service, bringing an end to an 18-year dispute over opening hours.

Boglione said that it was business as usual over the festive period at the Covent Garden restaurants, and that underlying trade remained strong.

It its most recent accounts at Companies House, Petersham (UK) Limited warned that the main uncertainty for the business were the rent rates, having failed to agree to further discounts with its landlord after its concessionary agreement ended in April last year.

“Whilst there have been notable concessions, we have yet to agree a position which is acceptable to us,” it said.

Fewer people are visiting central London regularly after the pandemic, it added, and diners are more cautious with their discretionary spending, while high inflation has also weighed on the business.

The company posted a loss before tax of £405,440 in the year to December 24 2023, on revenue of £7.5mn, albeit this was better than the previous year’s loss of £1.26mn.

Additional reporting by Joshua Gabert-Doyon