Sigmar says Minigarður closure is unrelated to restaurant shutdowns

Businessman Sigmar Vilhjálmsson says the closure of Minigarður is unrelated to tax authorities and police sealing two restaurant businesses. He made the comments on Facebook, according to mbl.is, after Minigarður’s owners announced earlier this week that they had requested bankruptcy proceedings.

Sigmar, who was one of Minigarður’s owners, said he had not been involved in running Hamborgarafabrikkan at Höfðatorg since leaving the business in 2018. He founded the hamburger restaurant with Jóhannes Ásbjörnsson. Sigmar said he had also had no role in running Hlöllabátar since 2022.

“The closure of Minigarður is not connected to these matters. It is a coincidence that everything is happening in the same week, and I would not have chosen this timing myself,” Sigmar wrote.

Police confirmed that Hamborgarafabrikkan and a Hlöllabátar sandwich shop at Bíldshöfði had been sealed at the request of the tax authority. A Hlöllabátar outlet by Smáralind had also closed earlier.

The Hlöllabátar brand is used by more than one operating company, so its outlets are not all run by the same business. A separate company operates the Hlöllabátar at Ingólfstorg in central Reykjavík, while Hlöllabátar ehf. runs outlets at Bíldshöfði 5 and Bústaðavegur 20, according to the company’s website.