Giraffe extends its presence with Wok Wok buy

Giraffe, the world food restaurant chain, has almost doubled in size after buying three former Wok Wok restaurants in London from City Centre Restaurants.

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It expects to have all three restaurants - in Kensington, Richmond and Chiswick - open by the middle of October.

First to open should be Chiswick, by the end of July, followed by Richmond in mid-September and Kensington in October.

Giraffe already has four restaurants in London - in Islington, Hampstead, Battersea and Marylebone.

Andrew Jacobs, one of Giraffe's owners, said that the group had no huge expansion plans but was going to be "slow but sure" in its development and "move at a pace we can handle".

The group, which previously opened just one restaurant a year, was set up in 1998 by Jacobs and Russell and Juliette Joffe.

City Centre sold two of the other Wok Wok restaurants to chicken restaurant chain Nando's, and one each to PizzaExpress, the Barracuda pub group, property developer the Michael Shanly group, and outdoor equipment retailer Millets.

The sale of Wok Wok was announced in May, but details of the buyers have only just emerged. Prices for the individual restaurants were not disclosed but the group as a whole is rumoured to have sold for more than £4m.

Berkeley Simmons Davis was the agent.