Gourmet Burger Kitchen rescued by Giraffe owner

Restaurant chain Gourmet Burger Kitchen has been bought out of administration by Boparan Restaurant Group.

The deal includes 35 sites and 669 jobs. However, 26 restaurants and 362 jobs will be lost.

Boparan owns the Giraffe chain and is owned by Ranjit Boparan, who founded 2 Sisters chicken processing company.

GBK, which has had several owners, was most recently owned by South Africa-based Famous Brands.

It was sold out of administration by accountancy firm Deloitte.

"As with a number of dining businesses, the broader challenges facing 'bricks and mortar' operators, combined with the effect of the lockdown, resulted in a deterioration in financial performance and a material funding requirement," Gavin Maher, Joint Administrator at Deloitte, said.

"We have been working closely with the management team under very difficult market conditions to try and find a funding solution and I am glad to be able to announce the rescue of this well-loved brand together with a large proportion of the sites and workforce.

"However, it's clearly disappointing that a number of sites have had to close resulting in today's redundancies."

The company has been in trouble since November 2018 when it entered a Company Voluntary Arrangement.

Since then, the coronavirus lockdown has hit sales, Deloitte said.