The owner of the Bella Italia, Café Rouge and Las Iguanas restaurant chains has collapsed into administration, with the immediate loss of 1,900 jobs. The Casual Dining Group has appointed the advisory firm AlixPartners to handle the administration, which is expected to result in the breakup of the group and the streamlined chains sold off to new investors. The company said multiple offers were on the table but buyers did not want to acquire all the existing sites and 91 of its 250 outlets would remain permanently closed. “We appreciate that this is an extremely difficult time for all those associated with Casual Dining Group,” said Clare Kennedy, one of the administrators. “Our immediate priorities are to assist those whose employment has been affected by today’s announcement and to secure a sale for the group in order to protect jobs and provide the group’s much-loved brands with a sustainable platform for the future.” All the group’s restaurant brands are affected by the closures but Bella Italia and Café Rouge are bearing the brunt, with 35 and 32 closures respectively. Las Iguanas is shedding 11 sites while CDG’s beer, chips and mussels brand Belgo will permanently close three out of four outlets. The group’s airport brands Huxleys and Oriel are also going. In total, CDG employs just under 6,000 people. The private equity-owned CDG had warned in May that administration was on the cards as the lockdown forced the temporary closure of all its sites. It is yet more bad news in a grim week for the retail and hospitality industries, which are shedding thousands of jobs despite the easing of lockdown restrictions that will allow restaurants and pubs in England to open their doors on Saturday for the first time in more than three months. More than 6,000 retail job losses were announced on Wednesday alone. SSP, the owner of Upper Crust and Caffè Ritazza, said it was cutting 5,000 jobs as its sites in usually busy railway stations struggled for business as office workers continued to work from home. The CDG closures include a dozen restaurants in airports, including four outlets at Heathrow. The pandemic has exacerbated problems that already existed in these sectors. Casual dining chains have been going through restructurings for several years after a private equity-backed boom ended in an oversaturated market. Julie Palmer, a partner at the corporate restructuring firm Begbies Traynor, said: “The casual dining sector was in distress before this crisis but this is what will tip many over the edge and towards collapse. The make up of the high street before this crisis was such that one could not do without the other and they begin to spiral down together towards the bottom of their finances.” At the start of this week the private equity backers of the burger chain Byron said they were preparing to place the company into administration. The accountancy firm KPMG has been trying to sell Byron since early May but has attracted no bids for the 51-restaurant chain. In June the Restaurant Group, which owns Frankie & Benny’s and Garfunkel’s, said it would close up to 120 restaurants, with almost 3,000 jobs losses, while more than 1,000 Carluccio’s staff lost their jobs as part of a rescue deal in May. On Thursday it also emerged that Market Halls, the company which operates three of the biggest food halls in the UK, would not reopen its three London sites, resulting in 86 redundancies. Two years ago CDG closed 50 underperforming restaurants, renegotiated rents with its landlords and received a £30m injection from its private equity investors – KKR, Pemberton and Apollo. But it was not enough to turn around the loss-making business which, in common with its casual dining rivals, had been hit by rising costs and slowing consumer confidence. A number of potential investors have been linked to the CDG brands including the German investment group Aurelius – which is said to be interested in buying the Café Rouge and Bella Italia chains – while Endless and TriSpan, the backer of Thunderbird Fried Chicken, are said to be vying for Las Iguanas.