Three Joes, the sourdough pizza and craft beer restaurant chain, has acquired the fourteen-strong ‘The Stable’ pizza chain (turnover £14.6m) from Fullers for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition sees the company expand its geographical spread into the South West, Wales and the Midlands.

Tim Hall, chief executive and co-founder of Three Joes said: “We’ve been huge fans of The Stable since we launched Three Joes in 2017 and this acquisition represents a significant step forward for us. The Stable is five times our size and whilst we are all operating in uncertain times we are confident the business has a strong future ahead.

“With sites located in harbours, beach fronts and market squares in the South West and on the coast, the opportunity to add these beautiful sites to our estate was too good to be true. We believe these are the ideal locations to expand Three Joes into whilst the country recovers from Covid and people choose to take holidays at home in the UK.”

Three Joes operates three restaurants in Winchester, Fareham, and Sheffield and was founded in 2017 by Tim Hall, the founder of the healthy fast-food chain pod. Peter Bruton, ex-founder of Byron Hamburgers and Emma Blackmore ex-Pizza Express and Pret menu development and procurement specialist.

Co-founder and operations expert Peter Bruton said “We have spent three years crafting a successful operating model at Three Joes. We were beginning to disrupt the high street UK pizza chains with 40% like for revenue growth Q1 2020 and we aim to transplant this trading success into these fantastic new sites as soon as we can safely reopen them in line with Government advice.”

Co-founder Emma Blackmore said, “Three Joes is about great value, innovative food for everybody and our customers love what we do. These beautiful new restaurants form the perfect backdrop for the fun, easy-going Three Joes experience, and I cannot wait to fire the ovens up on this thrilling expansion project.”

The acquisition was privately funded by Three Joes shareholders. Tim Hall said “We have inherited a business from Fullers in superb condition and concluded this complex transaction in less than a week allowing us to focus on protecting jobs and reopening the sites as quickly as possible. We face a genuine challenge restarting our 14 restaurants, but we are confident customers will return and we believe the market will be buoyant by spring 2021. That is the belief Peter, Emma, our shareholders and I have all backed in this deal.”

Commenting on the sale of The Stable to Three Joes, Fuller’s chief executive Simon Emeny said: “The Stable is a fantastic brand and we are proud to have helped it grow.  Three Joes is a company that knows pizza, has a similar ethos and culture, and has a management team we trust to look after The Stable. We wish Three Joes every success in taking The Stable on through the next chapter in its history.”