Billionaire Issa brothers buy fast food chain Leon

Mohsin Issa and Zuber Issa’s firm EG Group has bought more than 70 Leon restaurants across the UK and Europe.
View of Leon restaurant
PA Media
Taz Ali18 April 2021

Blackburn billionaire brothers Mohsin Issa and Zuber Issa, who own supermarket giant Asda have bought the fast food chain Leon

The brothers’ petrol forecourt business EG Group has secured more than 70 restaurants across the UK and Europe

In a statement issued on Sunday, EG Group said the deal – worth £100 million according to the Financial Times – is part of “significant growth in its non-fuel and food service operations”.

Leon chief executive John Vincent, who co-founded the chain in 2004, described a “say day” but said that he has got to know the Issa brothers over the last few years.

“They have been enthusiastic customers of Leon, going out of their way to eat here whenever they visit London,” he said.

Leon is a fantastic brand that we have long admired

Issa brothers

“They are decent, hard-working business people who are committed to sustaining and further strengthening the values and culture that we have built at Leon, a business that has my dad’s name above the door.”

He added: “We have tried hard, done some good things, made a healthy amount of mistakes, and built a business that quite a few people are kind enough to say that they love.”

Mr Vincent founded the company with Henry Dimbleby and chef Allegra McEvedy with the brand focused on creating healthy fast food.

He said he is confident that under new ownership the brand will “flourish and have even greater appeal”, particularly outside London.

In a joint statement, the Issa brothers said: “Leon is a fantastic brand that we have long admired.

“As established entrepreneurs in the food service retail market ourselves, we have a huge admiration for the business that John and the Leon team have built over the years, and firmly believe that their culture and values closely align with our own.”

EG Group said it plans to open around 20 Leon sites a year from 2022.

The group already operates more than 700 food outlets in the UK and Ireland including branches for Starbucks, KFC, Burger King, Greggs and Subway.

It comes after the Issa brothers completed their £6.8 billion acquisition of Asda in February, though the deal still needs to secure approval from UK competition regulators.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in