| | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Genre | Restaurant (chain) |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Founder | Juliette Joffe Russel Joffe Andrew Jacobs |
Number of locations | 3 (UK) 6 (UK Airports) 1 (Bengaluru Airport) 1 (Barcelona Airport) 1 (Doha Airport) 1 (Dubai Airport) 2 (Málaga Airport) [1] |
| Parent | Boparan Holdings |
| Website | www |
Giraffe World Kitchen is a restaurant chain headquartered in Birmingham, United Kingdom, which was founded in 1998 in Hampstead as Giraffe Restaurants, by Juliette Joffe, Russel Joffe, and Andrew Jacobs. [2] 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. [3] In March 2013, the chain was announced to be acquired by Tesco for £48.6 million. [4] As part of the acquisition, 3i and Risk Capital Partners sold their shares in the company. [5] In June 2016, Tesco reached an agreement to sell the company to Boparan Holdings. [6]
As of August 2022, the company has 12 outlets across the UK plus three at Dubai Airport in the United Arab Emirates and two at Malaga Airport in Spain. [1]
In September 2016, the company introduced a new brand, Giraffe World Kitchen, with its first branch in Basingstoke. The brand then had 45 restaurants in the UK and four in the United Arab Emirates. [7] In March 2019, though, Boparan announced that 20 branches had been tagged for closure “to protect the company”, which had made a pretax loss of £10 million on sales of £67 million. [8]