Stamp Entertainment, a subsidiary of Nightcap, has entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire certain of the assets of TDC Concepts, which operates The Piano Works.
Nightcap is paying a total consideration of £200,000 for the assets, following a pre-pack administration process by TDC Concepts and Nightcap has also raised £1m through a subscription of 16,666,666 of new ordinary shares in the company to provide working capital to Stamp.
It is intended the current directors of TDC Concepts will become minority shareholders in Stamp.
The Piano Works, which is currently operating at Nightcap’s Barrio Covent Garden venue and at a venue in Farringdon, London, was launched in 2015 in a large Victorian warehouse site in Farringdon.
Successful residency
The Piano Works is an interactive live music entertainment concept, typically involving pianists, vocalists and other musicians performing an audience curated playlist, accompanied by a food, drinks and cocktail offering.
Since November 2023, The Piano Works has enjoyed a successful residency within Nightcap’s Barrio Covent Garden venue. The residency resulted in a significant uplift in revenues compared to the board’s forecasts under the Barrio brand for the four-week festive period ended 31 December 2023.
Nightcap intends The Piano Works to become a permanent fixture at the Covent Garden site and for The Piano Works concept to be the rolled out along with the other successful brands in the Nightcap portfolio.
Nightcap chief executive Sarah Willingham said: “The Piano Works is another excellent addition to our group. I very much look forward to the future of this concept. It adds a whole new area of expertise to Nightcap and a different entertainment offer, bringing live music to our customers.”
Great entertainment concept
Willingham continued: “We have known The Piano Works concept for a long time and look forward to working with the founders and their dedicated staff. After the very successful residency in our Barrio bar in Covent Garden at Christmas we are delighted to be able to partner with them and provide the opportunities to bring this great entertainment concept to other cities across the UK.”
The Piano Works founder Alan Lorrimer said: “Over the past eight years, we have loved creating a communal and immersive experience for our many guests singing along to their favourite soundtracks.
“The past four years have been the toughest I have known in my forty years in hospitality. We survived Covid but when the sale of our Leicester Square venue fell through, it was the last financial straw.
“We transferred into Covent Garden thanks to a great collaboration with the Nightcap team. We had an excellent Christmas that proved we could work really well together.
“We now have the potential to expand The Piano Works and prove that customers across the country will love our immersive audience requested live music experience.”