Tesco offloads Giraffe restaurant chain to Boparan

Supermarket giant Tesco has found a buyer for its distressed Giraffe chain of restaurants in the form of Harry Ramsden’s owner Boparan.

Boparan, the investment company set up by British businessman Ranjit Singh Boparan, has acquired the loss-making Giraffe restaurant group for an undisclosed sum. Boparan is also known as the “Chicken King” as a significant part of its business interests lie in supplying poultry and ready-meals to supermarkets including Tesco.

The move will see Boparan, which already owns fish ’n’ chips restaurants Harry Ramsden’s, London-based chain Fishworks and exclusive Westminster-based Indian restaurant The Cinnamon Club, increase its presence in the UK food and drink sector. Boparan also owns Northern Foods, famous for the Goodfella’s pizza and Fox’s biscuit brands.

As the Business Sale Report previously covered, Tesco had been looking for a buyer for the Giraffe brand since late March 2016. The latest sale is part of chief executive Dave Lewis’s plan to offload most of its non-grocery businesses in order “to make significant progress on our strategic priority of protecting and strengthening our balance sheet”.

Mr Lewis said of the Giraffe division sale: “As we stabilise the business in the UK, we continue to focus on where we can best serve the needs of our customers, while ensuring our business remains sustainable for the long-term.

“Giraffe is a much-loved brand, and while casual dining remains an important part of the shopping trip for many of our customers, we will continue to meet these needs through our Tesco Cafés and other providers.”

Boparan’s purchase will see the company take over all 54 standalone Giraffe restaurants across the UK, including 12 franchise outlets and three restaurants within Tesco complexes up and down the country.

For more information, see other restaurants for sale.

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