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Updated 13.45
THE AVOCA CHAIN of cafés and retail outlets has been sold to US-based multinational catering giant Aramark.
The deal announced today, which still needs to clear the Irish competition watchdog, comes with a reported pricetag of more than €60 million and a promise to open another five stores at an investment of up to €15 million.
The near 300-year-old Avoca Handweavers business was bought by its current owners, the Pratt family, in 1974 and expanded into a national network of shops selling clothes and other craft products, as well as cafés and food halls.
It also exports blankets and clothes, and runs a high-end catering business.
Speaking on Newstalk’s The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Avoca managing director Simon Pratt, whose parents Donald and Hilary began developing the business four decades ago, said the company would “not be cutting corners” under its new owners.
“We will not be exchanging butter for margarine on our scones, we will not be making it smaller, we will be making it better,” he said.
Pratt said he signed a three-year agreement to keep running the business as part of the deal, as did the rest of Avoca’s senior management.
One of the things that’s been said to us over the past while is ‘ooh it’ll change’ … the message from Aramark and from me and from everyone in the senior team is that we’re absolutely determined to prove that’s not so.”
A different direction
Aramark is already a major multinational employer in Ireland with over 5,000 staff across the island and in its EMEA operations, which are headquartered in Dublin.
Its global businesses range from serving food at sporting events, hospitals and schools, to providing staff, uniforms and cleaning services. However the Avoca buyout will be Aramark’s first foray into the luxury retail business.
In an earlier statement, Pratt said in Aramark his family’s business had found a “global partner which recognises the uniqueness of the (brand) and is committed to maintaining the heritage of our company”.
The new owner would help the brand “reach (its) fullest potential and to continue to grow both in Ireland an internationally”, he said.
Publicly listed Aramark, which turned over some $14.8 billion (€13.8 billion) last year, employs more than 270,000 people worldwide.
The head of its Irish business, Donal O’Brien, said Avoca gave it the opportunity to “internationalise a truly Irish culinary dining experience”.
Avoca will be kept as a separate business unit in Aramark’s Irish operations with Pratt remaining at the helm for now.
First published 11.09am
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A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus?
Typos lads. Typos.
@Accord Moan Eye: not a typo, Venus orbits the sun quicker than it spins on its axis, so a day is longer than a year
@Accord Moan Eye: A day on Venus is longer than a year on Venus.
@Accord Moan Eye: A full rotation of Venus on its axis, a day, takes longer than it does for it to orbit the sun, a year.
@Accord Moan Eye: Its not a typo.
@Accord Moan Eye: not a typo. The planet rotates on it’s axis so slowly that it has orbited the sun before it has rotated once.
@Accord Moan Eye: take you face and rest it on the palm of your hand
@Accord Moan Eye: I’d say you feel like a right pleb now!
@Accord Moan Eye: A day on Venus is indeed longer than a year. In fact, Venus rotates in a retrograde fashion – clockwise as you look ‘down’ on its north pole, as opposed to anti-clockwise for every other planet in the solar system!
They make great Razors up there, that’s all I know.
@Kevin O’Brien: yes Kevin women’s razors…
A day on Venus is longer than a day on earth. Debatable.
@Stephen Gaffney: Venus day is 116.75 earth days
@Greg Ward: Yeah but talking to you a day on earth would seem longer. Understand?
@Stephen Gaffney: Straight in with the insult I see. You are quite the colourful raconteur.
@Greg Ward: well you kinda took the bait lol
@Greg Ward: You just backed up my claim.
@Stephen Gaffney: Enjoy your night, mate.
@Greg Ward: You too Father Stone
@Greg Ward: it’s 243 Earth days
@Stephen Gaffney: it actually is. It actually rotates so slowly on its axis.
The only planet I know is the one I live on
@James Fox: Do you really?
Meh
Does Bananarama count lol
Anyone play Wolfenstein: The new collossus?
@Paul Cunningham: no but the original was brilliant. Oh would it be a wolf or Hitler behind that door
Star trek: there was a woman from venus, whose body was shaped like a …
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