UK's Little Chef chain acquired by Kuwaiti restaurant group Kout Food
05 Aug 2013
UK's Little Chef chain of roadside restaurants with the distinctive chubby cook mascot, has been acquired by Kuwaiti restaurant group UK arm Kout Food Group Restaurants UK Limited, for £15 million ($23 million).
Little Chef, which has had several owners in the past, was earlier this year put up for sale by its present owner, private equity firm RCapital, which hired KPMG to find a buyer.
Rcapital, a turnaround specialist, claimed that it had a deep affection for the Little Chef brand and wanted to find a buyer prepared to keep chef mascot Charlie as a familiar sight beside UK's main roads.
However, according to the firm, it was resigned to the fact that this would be unlikely since most of the offers it received for Little Chef were from companies that were looking to re-brand the estate.
Bidders included McDonald's, KFC and Burger King, who were reportedly looking to buy the chain but not retain its name. (See: McDonald's, KFC, Burger King in the fray for UK's Little Chef chain)
But Kuwaiti Stock Exchange-listed Kout Food Group's UK arm, which owns the Maison Blanc patisserie chain, and more than 40 Burger King and KFC outlets, will buy 81 of 83 Little Chef sites.
Little Chef, employing over 1,100 staff, opened its first restaurant in Reading in 1958, however, its popularity due to changing tastes and competition from food sales on petrol forecourts tapered.
Rcapital bought it in 2007, cut down the number of restaurants from 200 to 80 and tried to overhaul the menu in partnership with celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal.
The revamp was the subject of a documentary on Channel 4 named Big Chef takes on Little Chef.
Little Chef's filling all-day breakfasts have been the mainstay of its popularity with its customers.
The chain enjoyed peak popularity, when it took over its main rival Happy Eater in 1986, with more than 230 branches across the UK.
'Fat Charlie,' the mascot of the group, this year entered the social media age, using Twitter to urge UK citizens to breakfast at Little Chef, but has fewer than 3,000 followers.
Kout "has exciting plans to revitalise the Little Chef brand," said Fadwa al-Homaizi, the chairwoman of Kout's UK arm.
"Little Chef will benefit from a process of brand renewal in keeping with current trends, supported by traditional British values," she added.
