Giraffe is a restaurant chain headquartered in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

, England, which was founded in 1998 in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

as Giraffe Restaurants by Juliette Joffe, Russel Joffe and Andrew Jacobs. Giraffe was owned by its founders, with additional financial backing from private shareholders, 3i investment group and chairman Luke Johnson. In October 2006, 3i invested £10 million in the company in a deal that valued the chain at £24 million. It was announced in March 2013 that the chain was to be acquired by

Tesco Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

for £48.6m. As part of the acquisition, 3i and Risk Capital Partners sold their shares in the company. In June 2016, Tesco reached an agreement to sell the company to

Boparan Holdings Boparan Holdings Ltd is a company based in Birmingham, England, that owns food production and restaurant businesses. It is owned by Ranjit Singh Boparan and his wife, Baljinder Kaur Boparan. In March 2020, Boparan bought the Italian restaurant chai ...

Branches

Giraffe, Trinity Leeds opening day (21st March 2013)

As of August 2022, the company has 17 outlets across the United Kingdom plus three at Dubai Airport in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

and two at Malaga Airport in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. In September 2016, the company introduced a new brand, Giraffe World Kitchen, with its first branch in

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

. However, in March 2019, Boparan announced that 20 branches had been tagged for closure “to protect the company”, which had made a pre-tax loss of £10m on sales of £67m.

References

External links

* * {{Tesco , state=expanded Restaurant groups in the United Kingdom 3i Group companies Restaurants established in 1998 1998 establishments in the United Kingdom