Bridgepoint, the London-listed private equity firm, is preparing to sell its stake in Itsu, the Japanese casual dining chain and grocery supplier, according to Sky News. The move comes as Itsu’s founder, Julian Metcalfe, pushes an expansion plan aimed at lifting the company’s annual sales beyond £500m. The timing puts a private equity-backed consumer brand back in play just as buyers weigh appetite for UK restaurant and food retail assets against a mixed backdrop for discretionary spending.
No sale price or preferred buyer has been disclosed. The process is still described as preparatory, meaning terms, timing and eventual ownership structure remain open. What’s confirmed is the direction of travel: Bridgepoint wants out, and Itsu wants to get bigger before any deal closes.
What the private equity firm is reportedly planning for its exit
Bridgepoint is understood to be lining up a sale of its shareholding in Itsu rather than a wholesale disposal of the business, based on the Sky News report. That distinction matters. A stake sale can mean Bridgepoint exits entirely, brings in a new financial sponsor alongside existing shareholders, or sells down a portion of its holding while retaining some exposure. The report doesn’t specify which of these routes Bridgepoint is pursuing, nor does it name advisers running the process.
What’s clear is that Bridgepoint’s decision to explore an exit coincides with Metcalfe’s stated ambition to scale the business significantly. Private equity firms typically look to exit portfolio companies once a growth story is either fully realised or credible enough to attract a new buyer willing to pay for the next phase of expansion. Itsu’s positioning, straddling both restaurant dining and grocery retail, gives Bridgepoint a broader set of potential buyers to court, from trade acquirers in food retail to other financial sponsors focused on consumer brands.
Inside Itsu: from London sushi bar to national grocery supplier
Itsu began as a sushi and Asian-inspired casual dining chain in London and has since expanded into a grocery supplier, putting its packaged food products on supermarket shelves alongside its restaurant operations. That dual identity, part restaurant group, part food manufacturer, is central to how the business generates revenue and why it appeals to different types of buyers. A restaurant chain alone attracts investors interested in hospitality and consumer footfall; a grocery supplier attracts those focused on retail distribution and packaged goods margins.
The Sky News report describes Itsu specifically as “the Japanese casual dining chain and grocery supplier,” making clear this is not a pure-play restaurant business up for consideration. Itsu’s grocery arm has become a meaningful part of its commercial identity, supplying products that sit outside its own restaurant estate and reach customers who may never visit an Itsu outlet.
Julian Metcalfe’s £500m sales ambition
Julian Metcalfe, the founder of Itsu, is plotting what Sky News describes as an ambitious plan to grow the company’s annual sales to over £500m. The report doesn’t detail the current revenue base Itsu is growing from, nor a specific timeline for reaching that figure, but the scale of the target signals a company positioning itself for a step change in size rather than incremental growth.
Metcalfe is a known figure in UK casual dining, having built Itsu as one of the sector’s more recognisable homegrown brands. His push to grow sales substantially, arriving at the same moment Bridgepoint is weighing an exit, suggests the two developments are linked: a bigger, faster-growing Itsu is a more attractive and higher-value asset for Bridgepoint to sell, and a new investor entering now could be buying into that growth trajectory rather than a mature, slower-growing business.
Bridgepoint’s stake: how long it has backed Itsu and why now
The available reporting doesn’t specify when Bridgepoint first acquired its stake in Itsu or how large that holding is. What the Sky News report establishes is that Bridgepoint is currently the private equity backer of the business and is now preparing to sell. The absence of a disclosed timeline for the original investment leaves open questions about how much Bridgepoint has already extracted in value versus what a sale now would represent as a fresh return.
Private equity firms generally hold portfolio companies for a period of several years before exiting, using that window to professionalise operations, expand into new markets or product lines, and build the growth narrative needed to justify a sale price. Itsu’s move into grocery retail alongside its restaurant business fits that pattern of building multiple growth levers ahead of a disposal. Whether Bridgepoint’s exit timing is driven by fund-cycle pressures, an unsolicited approach from a buyer, or simply favourable market conditions for consumer brand sales hasn’t been disclosed.
The wider Bridgepoint picture: recent portfolio moves including the €1.2bn Pantheon loan sale
Bridgepoint’s potential Itsu exit is not an isolated transaction. Bridgepoint Credit, the firm’s credit arm, recently sold a €1.2 billion loan portfolio to Pantheon, transferring the loans from an older direct-lending fund into a new continuation vehicle, according to a statement seen by Bloomberg. That deal, worth roughly $1.4 billion, is a separate transaction from the Itsu process and sits within Bridgepoint’s credit business rather than its private equity arm, but it points to a firm actively managing its portfolio across multiple strategies.
Continuation vehicles like the one used in the Pantheon transaction let a firm give existing fund investors the option to cash out while extending the holding period for assets that still have value to capture, typically bringing in new investors to fund the vehicle. That Bridgepoint has used this structure on the credit side, while separately preparing an equity exit at Itsu, shows a firm working through liquidity events across different parts of its business at a similar moment. Neither transaction has been confirmed by Bridgepoint to be directly connected to the other, but both point to a period of active portfolio recycling for the firm.
Private equity’s appetite for UK casual dining and grocery brands
Itsu’s dual role as restaurant chain and grocery supplier places it at the intersection of two sectors that private equity has circled for years: casual dining and branded food retail. Restaurant chains offer scalable formats and recognisable consumer brands, while grocery suppliers offer distribution reach and repeat-purchase revenue that doesn’t depend on footfall into physical outlets. A business that operates in both, as Itsu does, can be pitched to a wider pool of potential acquirers than a single-format business.
The Sky News report doesn’t name specific rival bidders or comparable recent transactions in the space, so any assessment of broader sector appetite beyond Itsu’s own situation would be speculative. What can be said with confidence, based on the reporting at hand, is that Bridgepoint’s decision to test the market for its Itsu stake now, rather than earlier or later, suggests a judgment that current conditions and Itsu’s growth plans make this the right moment to seek a buyer.
What happens next: timeline, potential buyers and open questions
No firm timetable for a sale has been disclosed. Sky News reports that Bridgepoint is “eyeing” a sale, language that indicates early-stage preparation rather than an active auction with bidders already engaged. No potential buyers have been named, and neither Bridgepoint nor Itsu has issued detailed public comment on the terms of the process beyond what Sky News has reported.
The unresolved questions are about price, structure and buyer identity. Will Bridgepoint sell its entire stake or a portion of it? Will a new financial sponsor take over, or could a trade buyer with existing food retail or restaurant operations step in? And how much of Metcalfe’s £500m sales target needs to be achieved, or at least made credible, before a transaction can be priced and completed? Until Bridgepoint or Itsu confirms further details, the process remains one to watch rather than one with a defined outcome. Any formal sale announcement, adviser appointment, or bidder shortlist would be the next concrete marker to track.
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