Gourmet Burger Kitchen will close 26 restaurants and axe 362 jobs despite being saved by 'Chicken King'

Gourmet Burger Kitchen is to close 26 restaurants and axe 362 roles despite being saved from administration.

The chain had been bought in a rescue deal by Boparan Restaurant Group, which also plucked Carluccio's out of insolvency earlier in the pandemic.

GBK said it had started to see improvements in trading last year after a major restructuring process in 2018, which saw it shut a raft of sites.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen is to close 26 restaurants and axe 362 roles despite being saved from administration

However, the company, which had been owned by South African group Famous Brands, said it slid into administration after the virus impacted upon its liquidity and potential to be sold as a solvent business.

The group has now been sold in a pre-pack administration deal after working with insolvency specialists at Deloitte.

It said the move will save 35 sites and 669 jobs from its original network of 61 restaurants and 1,031 employees.

The restaurant chain was bought by 'Chicken King' Ranjit Boparan's company Boparan Restaurant Group

Gavin Maher, joint administrator at Deloitte, said: 'As with a number of dining businesses, the broader challenges facing 'bricks and mortar' operators, combined with the effect of the lockdown, resulted in a deterioration in financial performance and a material funding requirement.

'We have been working closely with the management team under very difficult market conditions to try and find a funding solution and I am glad to be able to announce the rescue of this well-loved brand together with a large proportion of the sites and workforce.

'However, it's clearly disappointing that a number of sites have had to close resulting in today's redundancies.

'We would like to thank all of those involved in the transaction, including our legal advisers, DLA Piper, and wish the management team, workforce and the new owners, Boparan Restaurant Group, every success in now taking the business forward.'

Satnam Leihal, the managing director of Boparan Restaurant Group, said: 'This latest acquisition is in line with our strategy to grow our restaurant group with quality brands.

'Whilst it is an extremely challenging time for the sector, we believe quality hospitality businesses will recover in the long term as people return to eating out.'

It is the latest expansion in dining for Boparan, which is owned by 'Chicken King' Ranjit Boparan and also owns the Giraffe, Ed's Easy Diner and Fishworks chains.

It is reported that Boparan, who has an estimated fortune of £593m, saw off competition from the new owners of GBK's rival, Byron Burger, to clinch a deal, according to Sky News.

He has been called the 'chicken king' as the co-owner and founder of 2 Sisters Food Group, which supplies about a third of the chicken on UK supermarket shelves 

GBK had started to see improvements in trading last year after a major restructuring process in 2018, but these were wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic. Pictured: GBK's cheese and bacon burger

The food tycoon worth £600million 

Growing up in the West Midlands, Ranjit Singh Boparan left school aged 16 with few qualifications.

He started out working in a butchers shop before founding food manufacturers 2 Sisters Food Group with wife Baljinder in Birmingham.

Established in 1993 as a frozen retail cutting operation, it has grown rapidly and expanded to cover 36 manufacturing sites in the UK, eight in the Netherlands, five in Ireland and one in Poland.

The group employs 18,000 people, and has annual sales of £3billion. It is listed 9th on the 2017 Sunday Times Top Track 100. Brands include Fox's Biscuits and Holland's.

Multimillionaire business owner Ranjit Singh Boparan with his son Antonio

In 2006 he endured personal tragedy when his son Antonio was jailed for leaving a toddler brain damaged and paralysed in a horrific car crash.

 a toddler brain damaged and paralysed in a horrific car crash.

The 33-year-old heir to a £130million chicken fortune was also handed a year in prison after pleading guilty to for kicking a man in the head at Birmingham's Nuvo Bar. 

heir to a £130million chicken fortune was also handed a year in prison after pleading guilty to for kicking a man in the head at Birmingham's Nuvo Bar. 

In 2010, Boparan's private investment company Boparan Ventures Ltd bought Harry Ramsden's restaurant chain. It was later sold to rivals Deep Blue Restaurants for an undisclosed sum.

Boparan's big move came late the same year when it announced a £341million bid to buy Northern Foods. Following a successful takeover, Northern Foods was delisted from the London Stock Exchange and Boparan made chairman.

The sprawling food business empire has since made several acquisitions of high street brands including Giraffe Restaurants and Ed's Easy Diner.

This year Ranjit and Baljinder Boparan came 239th on the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £593m. 

How more than 210,000 job losses have been revealed by major UK firms since lockdown began 

Some 210,781 job losses have been announced by major British employers since the start of the coronavirus lockdown in March as follows: