SandpiperCI Group

Investment summary

Sandpiper has been able to leverage its relationships with its franchise partners to open their brands in additional geographies: initially Gibraltar and more recently the Isle of Man. It is a dependable operator and upholds the franchisor’s brand values. It owns a high-quality freehold property portfolio, valued at £64m in January 2021, which provides a barrier to entry for the competition. There are some opportunities for in-fill across existing geographies, but we believe that more significant long-term opportunities lie in developing into new territories and an expansion into an adjacent segment such as hospitality. However, this is unlikely to occur in the short term given the ongoing pandemic. The FY21 results demonstrated the group’s resilience: in spite of lockdown-related store closures and significant extra pandemic-related costs such as PPE and social distancing measures, gross revenues were up 6% and trading EBITDA was up by 3%.