Tesco confirms it is selling Giraffe and Turkish operations

By Jo Gilbert

Published: 10 June, 2016

Tesco has confirmed it will be offloading Giraffe and the Turkish arm of its operations for an undisclosed sum.

In the last few hours, UK's largest grocer announced it will be selling its family-friendly restaurant chain Giraffe which posted a £4.1m loss for the full year in 2015.

The sale includes 54 standalone restaurants and three that sit inside Tesco stores.

It is being acquired by Boparan Ventures Limited in a move to concentrate on its core grocery business.

BoparanVentures is an investment vehicle that owns several UK restaurant businesses including chip-shop chain Harry Ramsden's.

Giraffe was bought by Tesco in 2013 for £49m while Tesco was still led by Philip Clark.

Since then, Giraffe has failed to meet expectations and in December the unit posted a £4.1m loss for the year, down from £100,000 the previous year.

Tesco is also selling off its interests in Turkey where it currently owns 170 Kipa stores and 10,000 employees.

Rivals Migros have snapped up Kipa for an estimated £30m.

The supermarket chain could also be on the verge of selling its other "peripheral" businesses including coffee shop chain Harris + Hoole and Dobbies garden centres. Tesco made history in 2014 after reporting a £6.4bn loss - the biggest in British corporate history.

Since then, it has been conducting an overhaul of its sprawling portfolio as it seeks to dispose of non-core assets.

Tesco posted annual pre-tax profits of £162m for 2015, marking a significant improvement from the multi-billion pound loss the year before.

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