Nombres propios

Who is Henry McGovern, the businessman who bought Belmondo

Henry McGovern has become one of the most influential figures on the European restaurant scene.

Click here to read the Spanish version.

The American McGovern is best known for being the founder of the multinational company AmRest, and owner of the La Tagliatella chain that also opened the first Pizza Hut in Wroclaw, Poland. Although he left that company some years ago, his career in the restaurant business continued to expand through his latest business project known as McWin, an investment company he created with his partner Steven K.

Henry McGovern (1966), as one of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs, who was listed in the top 5 of the Forbes list in 2008, was already running his first business known as ‘Kimberly’s Tennis Shoppe’ at the age of 13.

With that entrepreneurial foundation and broad business acumen, he went on to build the AmRest conglomerate with over 2,300 restaurants in 28 counties before selling his stake in 2019, with leading brands such as KFC, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, Burger King, as well as own brands such as La Tagliatella, SushiShop and Blue Frog; also being a major food wholesaler and an early investor in food aggregators, Pizza Portal and Glovo.

McWin buys Big Mamma

Now, following McWin‘s €1 billion asset management buyout of Big Mamma, Henry McGovern and his investment company are acquiring a majority stake in the restaurant group, which has 23 European Italian restaurants in France, the UK and Spain, including its original East Mamma trattoria in Paris and Circolo Popolare in London.

This is a major transaction that the company has valued at 270 million euros, which will keep Big Mamma founders Tigrane Seydoux and Victor Lugger at the helm of the company, but with a minority stake that will implicitly elevate McGovern‘s profile on the global restaurant scene.