Giraffe 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.[1] 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.[2] It was announced in March 2013 that the chain was to be acquired by Tesco for £48.6m.[3] As part of the acquisition, 3i and Risk Capital Partners sold their shares in the company.[4] In June 2016, Tesco reached an agreement to sell the company to Boparan Holdings.[5]
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.[6]
In September 2016, the company introduced a new brand, Giraffe World Kitchen, with its first branch in Basingstoke.[7] 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.[8]
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