Tortilla gobbles Mexican chain Chilango for £2.75m

The listed group described Chilango as a “highly complementary brand.”

Tortilla has acquired fellow Mexican restaurant business Chilango for £2.75 million from investment firm RDCP Group, part of a move to capitalise on workers returning to offices.

In an announcement, the listed restaurant group said the deal strengthened its position as "the UK's leading fast-casual Mexican chain" and boosted its presence in central London.

Chilango currently operates UK restaurants in Brighton, Manchester and London and four delivery-only kitchens. Six of these sites are in London's Zone 1.

Tortilla intends to retain the Chilango brand at "certain locations" and through delivery channels in a number of sites, identifying "several synergy opportunities" between the two companies which included leveraging Chilango's "buying power" and 5,500 sq ft central production kitchen in Tottenham Hale, London.

The company now runs 68 sites worldwide, including 52 company-operated UK restaurants. Both Chilango and Tortilla were founded in 2007.

Richard Morris, chief executive of Tortilla, said: "Chilango is a highly complementary brand that, similarly to Tortilla, provides a fantastic value-for-money proposition and embraces popular and growing sector trends for healthy, customisable food from an estate of restaurants situated in premium locations in London and Manchester."

Sameer Rizvi, founder of RDCP, commented that Chilango had been "successfully turned around" after taking advantage of the growing delivery market during the pandemic and was ready for its "next stage of growth".