The owners of the Japanica sushi chain purchased 50% of Yogo
Excluding the transaction was made at a value of ILS 7 million for the yogurt chain. Yogo plans to expand into five new branches each year
Adi Dovrat-Mezritz
03.08.2010 07:01
The founders of the yogurt chain Yogo have sold control of the chain to the owners of the Japanica sushi chain, TheMarker has learned.
Landora, the owner of the Japanica chain owned by Barak Abramov, has acquired 50% of the Yogo chain from three of its four founders: Amit Leventer, Lisa Mendelssohn and Shirit Keinan. The remaining 50% will be held by Liron Carmon, the fourth founder and CEO of the company. The four founders have so far each held 25% of the company's shares. Carmon will continue to serve as the chain's CEO. The transaction was made at a company value of ILS 7 million.
Landora is the franchisee of Yogo branches in Cinema City and G Kfar Saba. Yogo's first branch opened in March 2008 on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv and covers 140 square meters, including a store and offices. The four founders of the chain invested an initial sum of ILS 1.3 million in its establishment. Today, the chain has six branches: on Rothschild Boulevard, in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Cinema City in Glilot, G. Kfar Saba, Herzliya Pituach and HaBarzel Street in Ramat Hachayal, the branches in Rothschild and Rabin Square are owned by the company and the rest operate through franchisees.
Liron Carmon confirmed the news and said that the chain has future plans to develop at the pace of opening five new branches each year.
Recently, Landora, which operates 17 Japanica branches, competed to acquire a spaghetti chain. Landora, which initially offered ILS 4.5 million and went up to a final offer of ILS 5.2 million, lost bidding for the Sheeran Group.
Landora's attorney, Guy Cullen, appealed to the court before district court judge Varda Alsich, who heard the case, ruled that Sheeran would win a bid for spaghetti. He argued against the trustee's recommendation that Sheeran is the preferred candidate to win the bidding.
According to him, Landora's offer will be much better for both creditors and franchisees, both because Landora has extensive experience in restaurants and franchises, and operates two chains of over 20 branches, and also because Sheeran's experience is mainly in providing shuttle services and operating a hall and event garden. Despite the allegations, however, Andorra lost in bidding.