The restaurant owner who, shortly after receiving recognition from the Michelin Guide, beat up a female guest in the pub, did not fulfill his promise to step down; on the contrary – he became the sole owner of the company, thereby strengthening his position.
Shortly after the Michelin Guide 2024 awards ceremony, social networks and online news sites were flooded with a video showing Murad Juško, co-owner of COD, a restaurant included on the list of Michelin-recommended venues, beating up a female guest of the bar Space Falafel. Public outcry was so intense that the police also took notice of what had happened, while the COD staff issued a statement in which they apologized on Juško’s behalf to everyone “who suffered in this situation” and informed the outraged public that Juško “has resigned from the position of COD board member” and “will no longer own shares in the company.”
In an era when a social media post can also destroy a business, this would have been a prudent and even respectable course of action. However, Juško bet on that same public’s short memory, which politicians also regularly exploit with considerable success. That is, the statement was issued, but no real follow-up action took place. According to Company Register data compiled by Lursoft, Juško did not leave the board of SIA Simply delicious, which owns the restaurant, nor did he sell his 35% stake in the company. Lursoft data show that instead Juško became the sole owner of the restaurant while retaining his seat on the board. What’s more – by the end of that same year, the rights to the restaurant were transferred to a company with a very eloquent name – SIA Incodwetrust (in English, “In COD we trust” or, if we choose to joke about the situation more than Juško himself, “In cod we trust”). Juško owns 100% of this company and is its sole board member.
This maneuver, combined with the public’s short memory, its inability to focus attention for long, and the restaurant’s kitchen recognized by Michelin itself, allowed the restaurant to finish 2024 with more than triple the profit and three times the turnover compared to 2023.
COD has retained its Michelin recognition this year as well, but shortly after the awards ceremony the restaurant announced that it is temporarily closing its doors.
It is not out of the question that COD may soon again belong to a new LLC, as the current company has been removed from the VAT register and owes the state more than 61,000 euros in taxes.
Originally published at https://inc-baltics.com/sieviesu-sitejs-turpina-sanemt-michelin-atzinibu/
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