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Kout Food Group to buy 81 of ailing restaurant chain's 83 sites and is expected to retain the Little Chef name and mascot
Restaurant chain Little Chef will remain a feature on Britain's roadsides after a Kuwaiti firm snapped up the ailing business for £15m.
The firm's Fat Charlie mascot, which has been a familiar sight for UK motorists for more than 50 years, looks likely to remain as the restaurant's logo following the successful bid by Kout Food Group, which operates a number of restaurant franchises in the Middle East.
Put up for sale earlier this year by its private equity owner, RCapital, Kout Food is understood to have beaten several bidders including McDonald's, KFC and Costa.
It is buying 81 of its 83 sites and is expected to retain the Little Chef name.
However, RCapital's chief executive, Jamie Constable, said the new owners would "take the brand to the next stage". They will hope to capitalise on a breakfast and travel dining market estimated at £3bn in the UK.
RCapital had acquired Little Chef for a nominal fee in 2007 after it collapsed into administration before an overhaul including a menu revamp by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal. It said it had brought the business back into profitability.
Little Chef employs 1,100 staff and serves more than 6 million customers a year. It had 234 outlets with 4,000 staff at the time of its 2007 collapse.
Famous for its large "Olympic" breakfasts, it began life as an 11-seat restaurant in Reading, Berkshire, in 1958.
