Perpetually Beleaguered Burger Chain Byron Is in Trouble Again.

 Byron Burger is once again staring into the chain restaurant abyss, as its current owner seeks to offload the beleaguered burger group, via an administration process that could result in restaurant closures and job losses. Famously Proper, the current parent company of both Byron and fried chicken brand Mother Clucker, has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, according to the Business Desk; the possibility of a sale was first rumoured in November of last year.


If a business files such a notice, it allows it to pursue various options — including a so-called “pre-pack administration,” in which a buyer would acquire Byron’s assets, but not its liabilities and debts — without any people or business to whom it owes money taking action. This administration would be the third in just over four years for Byron, which was most famous first for opening a chain whose restaurants had their own identities, and then for assisting the Home Office in an ambush immigration raid on its own employees.


 In 2018, private equity firm Three Hills Capital bought it, closing 16 restaurants in the process; it closed 31 more, at the cost of 650 jobs, in summer 2020. Then, another firm, Calveton, acquired the brand, with Three Hills maintaining a minority stake and Famously Proper taking over the operations of the burger restaurants.