It's Not Terry's, It's Ours ; Two Buccaneering Businessmen Have Got Their Hands On Sir Terence Conran's Restaurant Empire. But Without the Perfectionist Foodie at the Helm, Can They Make Us Hungry for More

Summary

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It is not yet midday but already Plateau, the discreet, steel- girdered temple to gastronomy that sits above Waitrose in Canary Wharf, is filling up. Early escapees on large expense accounts are settling themselves into the white bucket-shaped chairs and greedily perusing the menus. It is a classic Conran restaurant: minimalist furniture, trendy flower arrangements and a menu that's modern without being intimidating.

But while the cigar-chomping Sir Terence Conran was indeed responsible for the opening of Plateau in 2003, the restaurant's owners are the two dark-suited, shiny-booted businessmen sipping cappuccinos in a quietish corner by the bar and surveying the growing lunchtime crowd with proprietorial satisfaction.

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Extract

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It's Not Terry's, It's Ours ; Two Buccaneering Businessmen Have Got Their Hands On Sir Terence Conran's Restaurant Empire. But Without the Perfectionist Foodie at the Helm, Can They Make Us Hungry for More

In a very quiet takeover last September, David Loewi, 48, and Des Gunewardena, 49, backed by the financiers HBOS, led a Pounds 30 million buyout of 49 per cent of Conran Restaurants (minus the Zinc chain and the Great Eastern Hotel, which was sold last March to Hyatt for an eye-watering Pounds 150 million). They will be purchasing another stake that will take them to a majority holding.

This was not, it turns out, a ruthless plot to oust the septuagenarian from his cherished restaurants. 'It was Terence's idea,' say...

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