F&B & Hospitality Advisory · UAE, GCC & Levant

Concept to opening. Growth to open water.

Clair de Lune Advisory Services guides F&B and hospitality founders, investors and franchisees across the UAE, GCC and Levant: from first concept to opening day, through growth, and to a negotiated exit when it's time. Founded and led personally by Gaetan Hervé.

Chart a course → See our work

F&B Advisory Operations Management Concept Development Turnkey Openings Franchise Development M&A Advisory Restructuring Site Selection

What we do

Five services. One advisor, start to finish.

Across the UAE, GCC and Levant, the work falls into five areas, and most engagements touch more than one.

Operations leadership

Day-to-day management of growing brands, on retainer.

Concept development & turnkey openings

Permits, approvals, systems and suppliers, coordinated from blueprint to opening day.

Franchise brokerage

Sourcing and negotiating regional franchise rights for investors.

Sites & exits

Location sourcing and negotiated exits for distressed operators before insolvency.

M&A & investor advisory

Due diligence, valuation and transaction support.

How we work

The voyage from concept to open water.

Every hospitality engagement follows roughly the same chart: the waypoints below are drawn from the way we actually run them.

WP · 01

Concept & site

Shaping the concept and finding the right location, including the compliance groundwork most founders don't see coming, before a lease is signed.

WP · 02

Turnkey opening

Civil Defense and food safety approvals, systems, suppliers and the menu, all moving at once so opening day doesn't slip.

WP · 03

Operations & growth

Hands-on operations leadership on retainer, plus franchise brokerage for investors looking to scale into new markets.

WP · 04

Exit & transaction

Due diligence, valuation and negotiated exits, for distressed operators before insolvency or owners ready to sell.

Selected voyages

A manifest of who we've sailed with.

Operations leadership, turnkey openings and franchise brokerage, across independent concepts and regional deals.

Keto Kartel pastry, red velvet with gold leaf

Keto Kartel vanilla bean pastry, cross-section

Operations leadership, on retainer

Keto Kartel

Running operations for an award-winning gluten-free, no-added-sugar luxury bakery and chocolate brand. B2B gifting now reaches YSL, Prada, Armani and Schiaparelli, and a new production facility is under way in Bulgaria.

4×

Revenue growth, 12 months

35%

Of sales from B2B gifting

€2M

Production facility, Bulgaria

Restaurant & café

Tavia Café & Restaurant

Full turnkey project: concept to opening day.

Franchise brokerage, Levant

Papa John's · Yolk Brands · Kitopi

Regional franchise deals for Papa John's, Yolk Brands (Pickl, BonBird) and Kitopi, on behalf of clients in Syria, signed at MOU stage.

Also aboard: pre-opening support for Bloom Vegan Kitchen, concept development for Falafel, and fundraising strategy for Jugglebowl.

Gaetan Hervé, Founder & Managing Director

Dubai, U.A.E.

The founder

Gaetan Hervé, Founder & Managing Director

Clair de Lune (moonlight, in French) is the light that gets a ship safely into harbor after dark. It's also the name Gaetan gave the firm he founded in 2023.

As Managing Director of Shakespeare & Co., he scaled the group from 5 to 57 outlets across 10 countries, grew turnover to AED 200M with AED 37M EBITDA, and led a 49% stake sale to NBK Capital Partners for USD 30M. Then he steered the group through its post-COVID restructuring.

5 → 57

Outlets

Countries

AED 200M

Turnover

USD 30M

49% stake sale

Track record, Shakespeare & Co., 2009–2023

In November 2023, the group went into administration, one of many Dubai hospitality casualties of COVID's long aftershock. It's part of why sites, exits and insolvency sit at the center of Clair de Lune's advisory work: Gaetan has run a business through exactly this, not just advised on one from the outside.

Today he works directly with founders, investors and franchisees: running operations on retainer, opening concepts from blueprint to launch, brokering franchise deals, and advising on the M&A and exits that come next.

Gaetan

Get in touch

Chart a course.

Tell me about the concept, the challenge, or the deadline you're working against, and I'll reply personally, usually within a day.

Email hello@clairdeluneadvisory.com

Phone / WhatsApp +971 50 459 6522

Based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates