KPMG sells 33 Ed Easy Diners but four Scottish sites close

KPMG’s Rob Croxen and Blair Nimmo, joint administrators to Ed’s Easy Diner Group Limited, Ed’s Easy Diner Holdings Limited and Ed’s Easy Diner Overseas Limited, said four Ed’s Easy Diner outlets in Scotland at Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Inverness and Livingston will close after being excluded from the pre-packaged sale of 33 Ed’s Easy Diner to Giraffe Concepts, part of food tycoon Ranjit Boparan’s Boparan Restaurant Holdings.

While 33 of the 1950s-style diner chain’s restaurants employing 700 staff across the UK will remain open after the buyout, 26 diners, including the four in Scotland, have closed with the loss of 379 jobs.

However, a Scottish diner at Glasgow’s St Enoch Centre has been included in the Giraffe Concepts deal that also included the Ed’s Easy Diner brand and the company’s head office team in London.

KPMG partner Rob Croxen said: “While we are pleased the transaction preserves around 700 jobs, our immediate priority in the coming days will be to liaise with those employees who have been affected by redundancy and ensure that in addition to receiving all back pay owed, they are provided with any assistance they need.”

Ed’s Easy Diners had been a fast-growing restaurant group with 59 restaurants across the UK.

Its chief executive, Andrew Guy, had come back to the role from retirement earlier this year after plans to sell the group were shelved when it failed to reach the £90 million asking price.

Mr Guy had led a buyout of the chain in 2009 when it had only three outlets, including its original site in London’s Soho, which had been established in 1987.