Tesco buys restaurant chain Giraffe for £49 million

Supermarket group Tesco has today announced that it has bought the award-winning restaurant group Giraffe.

The acquisition forms part of Tesco’s strategy to develop the space in some of its larger stores and create even more compelling retail destinations where customers can meet, eat and drink, as well as shop. The first Giraffe restaurant to open next to a Tesco store will be near London.

Giraffe, which has a restaurant in Exeter, is a leading family-friendly restaurant that offers a wide range of fresh, seasonal, quality food, comfortable interiors and friendly staff.  Its menu covers a range of global dishes.

Kevin Grace, Group Commercial Director at Tesco said, “We invest in businesses that add value for our customers online or offline; as we’ve done with Harris + Hoole, Euphorium, blinkbox, and now Giraffe. We have the opportunity to develop some of the space in our larger stores to create retail destinations that offer customers even more choice.”

Russel Joffe, Managing Director and Founder at Giraffe said: “We’re very much looking forward to working with Tesco. We’re passionate about great service, wonderful hospitality and serving good, healthy food at great value. This move will allow us to introduce Giraffe to a wider audience, presents great opportunities for growth and for the team to be involved in an exciting stage in our brand’s development. It will be very much business as usual at Giraffe.”

The first Giraffe opened in Hampstead, North London in 1998 and the group now consists of 48 sites nationwide, including franchised sites at Heathrow and other UK airports as well as one in Dubai.

The original founders, husband and wife team Russel and Juliette Joffe, along with Andrew Jacobs, will remain in place with Russel continuing as Managing Director. Risk Capital Partners and 3i have sold their combined stake.

Tesco has bought a 100% stake in Giraffe. The purchase price was £48.6million.