The co-founder of the Fishworks chain Mitchell Tonks has purchased his own private restaurant in Exeter.

Tonks has through property agents Christie & Co acquired a site in Dartmouth.

Occupying the ground floor of a three-storey building with views across the Kingswear estuary, the site has for the past three years traded as a pizza restaurant owned by Linda Sinclair and Martin Taylor.

The restaurant was sold for an undisclosed sum but Christie & Co had been seeking offers in the region of £225,000 for the leasehold.

In November FishWorks raised £2.3m through a share placing to accelerate its recovery plan after a rescue by Luke Johnson and Gary Answorth in February 2007.

Co-founded in 1995 by Tonks the company got into trouble after expanding too quickly and the underperformance of some of its sites.

In October last year the businesses new owners replaced Tonks as chief executive of the company and installed him as executive director.

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By Chris Druce