Sorrel — Hero C1 — Grid pattern (Centred)

For diligencing, scaling and exiting
consumer & hospitality groups.

Customer evidence for capital decisions.

Customer intelligence for diligence, value creation and exit - built for investors, advisors and boards.

Built for

OUR APPROACH

Sorrel transforms public reviews into investment-grade intelligence for diligence, value creation, and exit.

Six areas, each surfaced by our PhD-designed algorithm — so you see what’s driving performance, not just the headline number.

01

Product quality

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Product quality

How the product perception compares to competitors and substitutes on quality, value, atmosphere and every driver of satisfaction.

02

Operational execution and controls

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Operational quality and execution

How well, and consistently, the group delivers on service quality across the estate. Where execution is holding up, and which sites need focus.

03

Site performance and estate consistency

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Site performance and estate consistency

How each site is performing against its local competitors, the wider group, or the franchise system. Identifying sites under increasing competitive pressures and those requiring urgent intervention.

04

Pricing headroom and risk

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Pricing headroom and risk

The group's pricing power versus competitors, and how the customer has absorbed historic price rises. Where there's headroom to push, and where the value equation is under strain.

05

Competitiveness across legacy, new and entry markets

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Competitiveness across legacy, new and entry markets

How the brand performs against competitors in legacy markets, how it's landing in new markets, and the shape of demand and competition in prospective entry markets.

06

Group trajectory and early warning

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Group trajectory and early warning

The group's direction of travel and where - and how - performance is building or breaking. Early signals before they hit the top and bottom line.

Sorrel — Anatomy of a 4.2 (dark)

The public rating

4.2 / 5

- Aggregate scores hide underlying performance drivers.

- 74% of reviews are out of date.

- Platform algorithms skew the score.

›

What Sorrel surfaces inside it

Service

4.6

Food quality

4.5

Ambience

4.4

Drink quality

4.3

Brand

4.2

Location

4.1

Menu

4.0

Value▼ Hidden risk

3.3

The stars averaged to 4.2. Value is the hidden risk, quietly failing at 3.3.

Invest. Grow. Exit.

Decision-grade data for diligencing, scaling, and exiting consumer & hospitality groups.

Private Equity

Pressure test the investment thesis before signing, drive improved portfolio performance and evidence company quality at exit.

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Consulting

Sharpen conclusions, differentiate proposals, identify incremental scope and win the next mandate.

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Investment Banks & Corporate Finance

Defend the valuation, strengthen IMs, and pre-empt buy-side challenges - or find them.

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Operators

Steer the group with competitive context, optimise pricing, prioritise entry markets and prepare for exit.

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To date

0+

multi-site hospitality group locations

0m+

monthly active users across target TMT groups

$0bn+

aggregate enterprise value

Every lens, live.

Customer reviews are a vast, rich and forward-looking source of company data, but are normally too fragmented and lightweight to reliably inform diligence, boardroom, and strategy decisions.

Sorrel solves this by turning millions of public reviews into customer intelligence you can put in front of an investment committee or board.

Accurate and actionable, Sorrel is built for high-stakes capital decisions.

TESTIMONIALS

Sorrel is a crucial partner; their insights are not possible via traditional methods of consumer research.

Simon Wheeler

Co-founder

Sorrel’s proposition is highly useful. Their insights fit perfectly alongside other primary research conducted during commercial due diligence.

Ryan Pugh

Associate Director

Sorrel do an excellent job at analysing complex, regional, multi-brand restaurant review data. They can extract clear insights from a long history of reviews and their work is rigorous and actionable. There is clear, irrefutable value to this analysis.

Greg Golkin & Scott Berger

Managing Partner & VP

Sorrel — Case Studies

Case studies

Trusted by teams allocating capital.

Seven engagements where public review data changed the decision. Select any to see the evidence.

Buy-side diligenceRestaurantsPE firm

Franchisee outperformance verified, and pricing headroom qualified.

Engagement

A US PE firm bidding on a 94-site franchise within an 8,000-site QSR system needed to know whether the franchisee's quality was real or inherited from the brand.

Key findings

Guest experience ran 14.8% above the national system, driven by a 26.5% service premium.
The franchise led competitors on food quality and value for money, having absorbed 18.6% of historic price rises without VFM erosion.
A cumulative 9.7% service decline in the anchor trading area surfaced as a regional management issue for post-completion focus.

KPAs vs national system

Service 4.29

Food quality 4.34

Ambience 4.12

Presentation 3.52

Value 3.01

FranchiseNational system

The franchise leads the system on all seven KPAs measured.

Franchise quality verified independently. Pricing headroom thesis qualified.

Buy-side diligenceRestaurantsPE firm

US sites surfaced as the estate's weakest, exposing a structural risk.

Engagement

A US PE firm running buy-side diligence on a UK premium restaurant group entering the US market.

Key findings

US locations were the worst-performing sites in the entire estate, weakest on food quality and value for money.
Opening buzz had carried strong sales, masking the underlying reception.
The proposition was not resonating with US guests — a structural risk the financial data had not yet surfaced.

UK estate vs US sites

Food quality — UK estate 4.32

Food quality — US sites 3.15

Value for money — UK estate 3.78

Value for money — US sites 2.85

US sites trail the UK estate average by 27% on food quality and 25% on value for money.

Expansion thesis directly challenged. The bidder withdrew from the process.

Sell-side & exitRestaurantsConsulting

Category leadership evidenced across menu range, service and ambience.

Engagement

A strategy consultancy running sell-side commercial diligence on a UK QSR challenger brand entering a competitive auction.

Key findings

Overall guest experience of 4.11 — rank 1 across the competitive set, on a 22% uplift over eight quarters.
Menu range was the standout KPA at 12.5% above second place, with rank 1 also on service, brand and ambience.
Family penetration and halal-conscious positioning identified as post-completion levers for the incoming owner.

KPA performance vs competitor average

Overall experience 4.11

Menu range 4.28

Service 4.18

Brand 4.22

GroupCompetitor average

The group leads on all four KPAs, with the widest gap at menu range.

Sell-side process completed. Group acquired by a US private equity firm.

Sell-side & exitHotelsConsulting

A technology-led proposition validated as the structural moat.

Engagement

A consultancy briefing on a global lifestyle hotel brand with technology at the core of its proposition.

Key findings

Overall guest experience of 4.26, leading the competitive set.
Technology featured in 31.2% of reviews — 3.8× the peer mention rate — confirming it as the defining brand characteristic.
Return intent of 12.62% was the highest in the set, validating the repeat economics.

Technology mentions vs peers

3.8×the peer mention rate

Group 31.2%

Peer average 8.2%

Share of guest reviews mentioning technology. It features in nearly a third of the group's reviews.

Tech-as-moat position validated empirically. Group subsequently acquired.

Value creationRestaurantsBig Four

The rejection hypothesis disproven; service execution was the real driver.

Engagement

A Big Four firm running a performance improvement programme on a major UK high-street coffee chain. The opening hypothesis: guests were rejecting the brand on price.

Key findings

Value for money ranked second-highest in the competitive set, overturning the price-rejection assumption outright.
The primary complaint driver was service, not pricing.
A 1.41-point spread across locations indicated material execution inconsistency between sites.

Value for money vs competitive set

Competitor A 4.18

Group — rank 2 4.05

Competitor B 3.78

Competitor C 3.55

Competitor D 3.30

The group ranks 2 of 5 on value for money — far from the price-rejection hypothesis.

Pricing increases recommended. A site-specific service programme established as a new workstream.

Sell-side & exitRestaurantsConsulting

Regional city dominance evidenced, supporting management's growth claim.

Engagement

A consultancy supporting sell-side preparation for a UK regional coffee challenger.

Key findings

The group led on overall experience in 7 of 9 core regional cities.
Average experience premium of 8.4% against the next-best competitor in each market.
Local-market leadership held even where national players had greater store density.

Experience vs best local competitor

City A 4.45

City B 4.32

City C 4.26

City D 4.21

City E 4.02

GroupBest local competitor

City E is the exception shown — the one market where a local rival edges ahead.

Management's regional leadership claim independently validated. Group subsequently acquired.

Market intelligenceHotelsConsulting

Arrival experience identified as the strongest predictor of satisfaction.

Engagement

Engaged to map market characteristics and regional preference variance in a Middle Eastern hospitality market the firm had limited prior knowledge of.

Key findings

Guests' arrival experience was the strongest predictor of overall satisfaction across the market.
Sector-wide technology underinvestment surfaced as a clear differentiation opportunity.
Regional preferences varied so materially that city-by-city tailoring would outperform any single national playbook.

Predictors of overall satisfaction

Arrival experience 0.82

Service 0.68

Room quality 0.61

Food quality 0.54

Value 0.42

Technology 0.29

Correlation strength with overall satisfaction. Arrival leads the next factor by roughly 20%.

Consultancy framework rebuilt around regional differentiation, tailored by city rather than national average.

Invest. Grow. Exit.

Get in touch.

Schedule a call directly, or email us at sam@sorrel.ai.

Response within one working day. NDA-covered.

Customer evidence for capital decisions.

Sorrel transforms public reviews into investment-grade intelligence for diligence, value creation, and exit.

Product quality

Product quality

Operational execution and controls

Operational quality and execution

Site performance and estate consistency

Site performance and estate consistency

Pricing headroom and risk

Pricing headroom and risk

Competitiveness across legacy, new and entry markets

Competitiveness across legacy, new and entry markets

Group trajectory and early warning

Group trajectory and early warning

Decision-grade data for diligencing, scaling, and exiting consumer & hospitality groups.

Private Equity

Consulting

Investment Banks & Corporate Finance

Operators

Every lens, live.

Trusted by teams allocating capital.

A franchisee outperforming the system it belongs to.

The expansion risk the financials hadn't caught.

Category leadership, evidenced for the auction.

A tech-led moat, proven in guests' own words.

The pricing hypothesis that was simply wrong.

Regional dominance, independently verified.

The ten minutes that decide the whole stay.

Franchisee outperformance verified, and pricing headroom qualified.

US sites surfaced as the estate's weakest, exposing a structural risk.

Category leadership evidenced across menu range, service and ambience.

A technology-led proposition validated as the structural moat.

The rejection hypothesis disproven; service execution was the real driver.

Regional city dominance evidenced, supporting management's growth claim.

Arrival experience identified as the strongest predictor of satisfaction.

Get in touch.