Administrators seeking rapid sale of dark kitchen’s brands and platforms

Dark kitchen firm KBox Global has fallen into administration as a result of ongoing trading difficulties. With no solvent solution available to the business, administrators from Interpath Advisory will now seek to sell its brands and platforms.

KBox Global worked with restaurants, hotels and kitchens, using spare kitchen capacity to operate “dark kitchens” and licensing a suite of delivery-only brands. The firm, which also devised its own brands and provided training and performance management to operate them, experienced strong growth during the pandemic, amid rapid expansion in the delivery market.

As food delivery grew in popularity during COVID-19, KBox secured £5 million in seed funding from Hoxton Ventures, before raising a further £12 million in a funding round led by Balderton Capital. The firm built a network of kitchens across London, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Edinburgh and Brighton and was planning international expansion in countries including India and Australia through franchise agreements.

However, the firm began to experience increasing difficulties over recent years, with founder Salima Vellani leaving the business last year. Like many other food sector businesses, the company was also impacted by rising cost inflation.

Interpath Advisory’s Nick Holloway and Will Wright were appointed as joint administrators on October 11. All 18 of the company’s employees were made redundant, with the joint administrators saying it was apparent that "a solvent solution was not available".

Joint administrator and Interpath Managing Director Nick Holloway commented: "This is a challenging time for many dark kitchen operators, as cost inflation continues to impact margins. We will now be exploring the rapid sale of both the brands and platform and would ask that any interested parties make contact with us at the earliest opportunity."

In the company’s most recent accounts, for the period December 28 2020 to December 26 2021, its turnover was slightly over £5 million, but it incurred a £10.1 million pre-tax loss. At the time, its net current assets amounted to £5.9 million and it had net liabilities of £17.4 million.



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