A LIKELY SIGN of Press Up’s success is that the same question tends to arise when the company is in the news.

“Hang on – how many places does this crowd own?”

The scale at which the firm took over or opened what seemed like half of Dublin’s most prominent hospitality venues is slightly mind-boggling.

Just in restaurants alone, the firm was behind Wowburger, Elephant & Castle, Captain Americas, Mama Yo, Isabelle’s.

Then there’s the string of pubs, the Workman’s club on the quays, the Stella cinema in Rathmines… You get the idea.

All in, at its height Press Up was estimated to own about 50 venues and employ over 1,000 staff, making it one of Ireland’s biggest hospitality companies.

But that was then. Last week, it was confirmed that Press Up is effectively being taken over by Cheyne Capital, a London-based asset management firm.

Several of Press Up’s restaurants have recently gone into receivership, with the firm confirming earlier this week that it would close its three Wagamama restaurants in Dublin.

So what happened?

Press Up owners

First, a quick refresher on who, previously, owned Press Up.

The company was started by Paddy McKillen Jr and Matt Ryan, both friends from school.

Significantly, McKillen Jr’s father, Paddy McKillen Snr, is one of Ireland’s most prominent property developers who built up an enormous empire between the 1980s and the Celtic Tiger.

He’s been at the head of a string of major developments in Dublin, such as the building of the Jervis Street shopping centre.

Snr’s background and connections likely helped Jnr get off the ground when he and Ryan launched Press Up in 2009, with the pair taking over at Captain Americas.

Initially, they focused on managing the relatively small number of hospitality firms owned by the McKillen family, such as Wagamama.

However, seeing an appetite for new venues as Ireland came out of the recession, the new Press Up group launched a string of them.

New hotels and pubs were both bought by the company, or acquired from others.

In certain cases, such as with Wagamama, they didn’t own the business itself as such.

Wagamama is a British chain which started in the 1990s, with Press Up operating three franchise outlets.

The new venues tended to focus on style and creating an ‘experience’. The Press Up group itself also constantly talked about creating new ‘brands’. For example, the Stella in Rathmines consisted of two ‘brands’ – the cinema itself, and the bar upstairs.

Press Up operated alongside Oakmount, a McKillen development company.

The firm would often buy or develop venues, which would then be filled with a Press Up business, and also developed several hotels.

The result was that Press Up ended up running the likes of the Dean hotel brand, with properties in Dublin, Galway and Cork.

Rise and troubles

The model proved a hit, with Press Up venues springing up across Dublin.

As the firm rapidly expanded, the owners even considered floating the company on the Irish stock exchange. In 2018, McKillen Jr reportedly sounded out the prospects of selling off part of the company for as much as €60 million before the plan was abandoned, reportedly due to a lack of appetite from investors.

At the time, McKillen Jr owned 50% of Press Up, McKillen Snr held 25%, while the remaining 25% was split between Ryan and Liam Cunningham, a long-time associate of McKillen Snr.

While the plan ultimately didn’t take off, it was a sign of Press Up’s success that it was being realistically considered at all. As of 2019, the firm owned about 50 businesses and was reported to be looking at moving into the London market.

Then came Covid.

A body blow to Ireland’s entire hospitality industry, Press Up was likely better placed than many others due to Oakmount owning many of the buildings it operated in.

It also took full advantage of government subsidies to keep staff employed during lockdowns, receiving €7 million in 2022.

Still, about two years of repeatedly opening and closing venues is a major blow to any hospitality business, and Press Up was no exception.

The firm also needed money coming in, as it had borrowed cash to fuel its expansion.

While some money likely went into the business via the McKillen family, the real cash to drive its pre-Covid expansion came from borrowings.

Press Up was reportedly funded mostly by AIB until 2022, when Cheyne Capital took over the company’s debts. The UK firm is now reportedly owed somewhere between €45 million and €50 million.

Receivership

Press Up might have hoped to be able to pay that money back once Covid restrictions were finally lifted in 2022.

But then Russia invaded Ukraine, energy prices spiked and there was a cost of living crisis. Just as people were looking to cut back on discretionary spending, the hospitality VAT rate’s special 9% rate went back to 13.5% in 2023, something many companies have said squeezed already tight margins.

The post-Covid landscape was a completely different one for Irish hospitality versus the pre-Covid one. All of a sudden rather than expansion, Press Up was contracting.

In 2023, Oakmount sold off its Dean Hotel Group, meaning that the businesses would no longer be operated by Press Up.

Press Up also looked at selling off several of its brands, such as the Stella, although a deal has yet to materialise.

While many of its businesses were still trading profitably, some, such as Wagamama, had started to struggle.

With Cheyne looking increasingly unlikely to get its money back from Press Up, it pushed to restructure part of the business.

By all accounts, Press Up has a byzantine corporate structure, with different corporate entities controlling different parts of its business.

Because of this, Wagamama, Wowburger, Elephant & Castle were all owned by the same corporate entity.

Earlier this month, the three restaurant chains went into receivership – a corporate process where companies with a decent chance of staying in business look at how to restructure and pay down their debts.

The next day, Cheyne Capital announced that it had essentially taken control of the entire Press Up group.

The debt the UK company owned was turned into equity in the Irish business, with Cheyne now owning a majority stake in Press Up.

McKillen Jnr is reported to still own a small stake in the business, which the Irish Times put at less than 10%. He will retain a seat on Press Up’s new three-person board, with Cheyne holding the other two.

What now?

In terms of what comes next for Press Up – in the short term, there will be some restructuring as Cheyne looks to right the ship.

Ultimately, the UK firm is not a hospitality business and will likely be looking to whip Press Up into shape before it can sell it off.

While this might inspire fear of cuts into Press Up’s remaining 950 employees, reports that Cheyne is looking at investing as much as €20 million is a sign of some faith in the business.

And because of Press Up’s structure, while the likes of Wowburger and Elephant & Castle are in receivership, Press Up’s other 18 or so venues are trading normally.

While Wagamama will shut, as it was run on a franchise basis, there are already rumours that the British parent company will reopen its outlets at different venues.

Press Up/Cheyne is also reportedly once again considering opening more venues, meaning the 100 staff who lost their jobs during the week could soon be offered new ones.

But it means that the company still faces a very uncertain future.

Like the rest of the Irish hospitality sector – Press Up’s future is likely very different to the one it envisaged for itself in the heady days before Covid.