Becco reloaded after major business restructure

Veteran Italian restaurant Becco on Crossley Street in the city has undergone a major business restructure. Simon Hartley, the sole director of Olio Santo Pty Ltd, which owned the restaurant, has put the company into voluntary liquidation with debts totalling $1.8 million, but says that for the restaurant, it's business as usual.

Debts include $930,000 to the CBA, $218,354 to preferred creditors - Hartley's employees - and $676,000 to unsecured creditors, including $440,000 to the ATO. These creditors have been notified by liquidator Wayne Benton, of city-based Sellers Muldoon Benton.

Hartley has sold the business to Gnocchi Pty Ltd, a group of investors led by two directors - his financial adviser, Peter Holland, and stepfather, Rodney Gibson. ''I got double the amount [of money] I would have received on the open market,'' says Hartley, allowing him to clear some of the restaurant's debt.

Hartley opened the Crossley Lane restaurant in 1996 with his former wife, chef Liz Egan, and Richard Lodge. Egan, a judge on TV's My Kitchen Rules, and Lodge, who now owns Lupino on Little Collins Street, left the business partnership in 2009. Hartley, who will stay on to manage Becco, says the business suffered during the GFC but the restructure is a new beginning.