Sarah Willingham, the former head of Dragons’ Den, has purchased a significant tourist destination in Brighton.
In 2021, Sarah, 51, and her husband founded Nightcap PLC, which owns a number of bar establishments, including the Cocktail Club and Dirty Martini. The Brighton resident has since decided to purchase the Brighton i360, a seafront observation tower, and has now focused on something more personal.
Due to Brighton and Hove City Council’s outstanding £51 million debt, Brighton i360 closed in December of last year. It closed with immediate effect just before Christmas, making 109 employees redundant. The council agreed to write off the millions of dollars’ debt, allowing Sarah’s Nightcap to pay the remaining 115-year lease to the venue, after the venue couldn’t find a buyer.
We are delighted that Brighton and Hove City Council has opened the door for us to keep this iconic landmark open, according to Sarah, who made the statement in a statement about the exciting news.
When the i360 went into administration and no buyer was found, “We pass it every day, and we were just as disappointed as everyone else.” She told the Daily Mail that the closure would have had had a disastrous effect on our neighborhood businesses and left a blemish on this significant stretch of Brighton seafront. The This Morning star said, “We hope we will receive the support of our close knit local community as we begin this new chapter for the i360. “
Brighton and Hove City Council councillor Jacob Taylor expressed his delight at the closed venue’s second chance, saying: “We are delighted that Nightcap has taken such a keen interest in revitalizing the i360, and their passion and commitment to the city is obvious. We believe that this will make the city’s attraction more successful by allowing the attraction to re-enter and ensuring the continued viability of this significant stretch of seafront.
Nightcap’s major new acquisition comes after it reported a pre-tax loss of £1.8 million for the six months leading up to March 2024, following a £0.9 million loss a year earlier. The company’s loss was brought on by concerns about the hospitality industry as a whole, as well as the ongoing train strikes and higher than anticipated integration costs for its Dirty Martini brand.
We set out to build a great business at the back end of Covid, and the economy has overcome a number of additional challenges, including the energy crisis and rail strikes, as well as the inflation, cost-of-living crisis that threw almost everything at us, Sarah said.
“I think some of the best businesses are built in this environment,” he said. No other bar group, based on the brands and estate we have acquired and built over the past three years, is more apt to take advantage of the rapidly changing landscape of nightclubs and sticky dancefloors to safer, more flexible, and more inclusive late-night party bars.
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Source: Mirror
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