Valentina Putney Looks Set To Continue Trading

After Gazzano and Son steps in and buys group out of administration

Valentina's the Italian deli and restaurant on the Upper Richmond Road in Putney may continue to trade despite the company that owned it going into administration.

Immediately after the appointment of administrators, Gazzano and Son – which owns an Italian delicatessen on Farringdon Road, purchased the company.

Gazzano and Son has said that four of the eight sites will continue trading including the one in Putney.

Gabriella Valentina Croci is the sole director of Gazzano. She worked as a senior operations manager at Valentina Fine Foods, and has previously worked there as a senior manager and as a waitress.

The Valentina restaurant group had eight restaurants in London and Surrey and started as a deli and small cafe/restaurant in East Sheen opened by Bruno Zoccola in 1991.

Valentina East Sheen was essentially a delicatessen when it started. When Bruno Zoccola's nephew Fabio Arcari came on board nine years ago, the pair looked at opening a restaurant. The Putney restaurant followed, and the business expanded to eight sites.

The move to call in the administrators insolvency firm Begbies Traynor came after the firm took the decision in September to close its Reigate branch and its Chiswick branch a few weeks later. Bruno Zoccola stated that the “eating industry has changed” and citing disruptive technology from the likes of Deliveroo as a factor.

A spokesperson for the administrator said, “All employees of the company transferred to the purchaser upon sale and four of the eight shops operated by the company are continuing to trade under the new ownership.”

The sites that are expected to remain open are the ones in Putney, East Sheen, Battersea and Weybridge.

October 26, 2017