Leon lost more than £60m since EG Group takeover, closed 22 stores since CVA: Leon, the naturally fast-food brand, lost more than £60m following its 2021 takeover by EG Group and has closed 22 stores since its company voluntary arrangement (CVA) in December, an administrators’ report has revealed. Propel revealed in December that Leon, having been bought back by co-founder John Vincent two months earlier, was planning to undergo a CVA to help accelerate the restructuring of the business and reduce its number of loss-making sites. Andrew Andronikou of Begbies Traynor and Brian Burke and Michael Kiely of Quantuma Advisory were subsequently appointed joint administrators. Their report said the company entered an initial CVA in December 2020 due to a “drastic reduction in sales” bought on by covid restrictions, and emerged from this CVA in February 2023 – during which time it had been acquired by EG Group. The report said: “However, trading continued to face challenges under the new ownership, with significant losses of £12.5m recorded in the year ended 31 December 2023. Following significant further losses of circa £8.3m in the year ended 31 December 2024, the company was re-acquired by its co-founder, John Vincent, on 31 October 2025. Quantuma Advisory were first approached by the Company in October 2025 and were engaged on 2 December 2025 to assess the company’s financial position and the restructuring options available. QAL’s review identified the company was continuing to incur significant trading losses. The pre appointment work identified losses of between £7m and £10m depending on the accounting treatment. The company was supported by the EG Group/Asda Foodservice for some five years post its acquisition in 2021, and during this period, the company had sustained overall losses of in excess of £60m. Following review, it became apparent that the company would have to enter a restructuring process and implement a cost rationalisation programme including the closure of its loss-making sites, associated redundancies and a material reduction in its overhead cost base.” At the date of the appointment, Leon traded from 43 sites, and in the weeks leading up to the joint administrators’ appointment, the company closed seven loss-making sites. Following the appointment, a further 15 sites have been closed, and Leon now trades from 21 sites. A total of 46 staff were made redundant from the initial store closures, followed by 198 more from the subsequent closures, and Leon currently has 573 employees. The company’s total opening cash balance at the date of appointment was £3,810,168, while its closing balance (at 30 January 2026) was £1,658,825.01. During the post-appointment trading period, from 1 December 2025 to 30 January 2026, the company has recorded total direct sales of £4,174,242.42 from ongoing trade from directly owned and operated Leon sites, and a further £251,341.27 from franchise royalties from its five franchisees. The company also received £141,090.53 from a lease assignment of one of its closed sites. During this period, the company incurred direct costs of £5,316,318 and trading expenditure if £5,316,318, giving it a trading deficit of £2,745,003. At the date of appointment, Leon had fixed assets of £12,926,358. The company does not have a secured creditor, and no charges are registered against it, and no preferential claims are anticipated for either unpaid pension contributions or relating to employee deductions. In terms of secondary preferential creditors HMRC’s claim is expected to be circa £2,559,132. Anticipated distribution dividend for secondary preferential creditors is 100p, and for unsecured creditors, is to be confirmed. These include trade creditors (£7,764,742), other creditors (£513,514), accrued expenses (£2,717,455), property retained creditors (£2,923,923) and connected creditors (£4,502,053). Draft management accounts for the year to 30 December 2025 showed revenue of £54,328,535 (2024: £181,180,720), costs of £17,463,124 (2024: £57,319,256), a gross profit of £36,685,412 (2024: £123,861,464), employee costs of £19,406,778 (2024: £61,111,004), other expenses of £21,506,139 (2024: £79,971,955), and a loss of £10,829,041 (2024: loss of £33,412,137).