Entertainment group Oak View snaps up Royal Ascot caterer Rhubarb

A British luxury caterer that feeds punters from Royal Ascot to the Royal Albert Hall has been sold to a US entertainment group backed by Silver Lake, which plans to use the brand to compete with outsourcing giants for lucrative contracts.

Los Angeles-based stadium operator Oak View Group announced its takeover of Rhubarb Hospitality Collection on Thursday, outlining plans to first roll out Rhubarb’s offering to its owner-operated concert venues and then to bid for third-party catering contracts for other venues.

Oak View paid Liechtenstein-based asset manager LGT’s private debt team at least £100mn to buy the caterer according to people with knowledge of the deal, but they did not specify the exact amount.

Rhubarb has scooped up contracts in recent years to provide catering services for popular destinations including the Sky Garden, which sits atop London’s “Walkie Talkie” building, and the Hudson Yards development in midtown New York.

Oak View will introduce Rhubarb’s services to its five arenas across the US and five further venues that are under construction, including Manchester’s Co-Op arena, which will become the UK’s biggest indoor concert venue when it opens next year.

As part of the expansion plans, Oak View also plans to use Rhubarb to build a mid-market catering offering that can compete with outsourcing giants such as Compass, Sodexo and Delaware North for contracts.

Tim Leiweke, Oak View’s chief executive, said he believed Rhubarb could outcompete major outsourcers, which he said were “big and clunky and can’t get out of their own way sometimes”.

“They are just bulk mass, whereas we walk in the shoes of our clients as we run our own arenas so we understand premium catering, because we’ve sold premium,” he added. Oak View is currently bidding for 10 large third-party catering contracts for sports venues and convention centres, mainly in the US.

Six big outsourcers currently provide the lion’s share of food services for sports and music venues worldwide, offering broad-based catering options from concession stands to luxury hospitality.

“Not only do I think Rhubarb gives us a competitive edge, but I think it’s best in the business — and that’s based on 45 years of eating an awful lot of premium food and going to an awful lot of suites,” said Leiweke.

Pieter-Bas Jacobse, Rhubarb’s chief executive, said the team at Oak View “understand our business model, and we all see best-in-class hospitality as essential to the value proposition between venues and their fans”.

Large caterers have increasingly leaned on their sports and leisure divisions for growth to offset a decline in workplace food service contracts due to the popularity of hybrid working following the pandemic.

In the six months to the end of March, Compass’s sports and leisure division grew faster than any other part of the company, generating global revenues of £2.1bn, up 45 per cent on the same period a year earlier.

However Peter Backman, an industry analyst, said it may take a while to dethrone the major corporations, as catering contracts tend to be “difficult, complex, lucrative and very long-running”.