Kout spends £3.15m to enter UK coffee market: Expanding Kuwait-based Kout Food Group has completed it second deal in August by buying the share capital of South West Coffee, which operates eight Costa Coffee franchises, for 1.4m Kuwaiti dinars – around £3,150,000. South West Coffee, headed by husband-and-wife team Stuart and Lynn Montgomery, was Costa Coffee UK Franchisee of the year for 2010-11 and 2011-12 – the company has openings in Portishead, Kingswood and Clevedon lined up. At the start of the month, Kout Food Group expanded its UK presence by buying 78 of the 80-strong Little Chef restaurant estate from private equity firm R Capital in a deal estimated to be worth around £14m. Kout Food Group already has a sizeable business in the UK that stretches from fast food franchises through to a London noodle bar brand. The company partnered Wagamama founder Alan Yau to open Cha Cha Moon in 2008 and last year it launched Chi Wok, an Asian Fusion concept at the Westfield White City Shopping Mall with other sites now being sought. Kout also owns Maison Blanc, the artisan bakery which supplies Waitrose, Starbucks, Booths and the Mitchells & Butlers estate, including Ember Inns, Vintage Inns, Village Pub & Kitchen, Miller & Carter and Browns Bar & Brasserie. In addition, the bakery supplies 14 Maison Blanc shops based within London and the south east. In 2012, Kout, as part of its international expansion strategy, acquired the franchise rights for a total of eight Kentucky Fried Chicken sites in the UK from Banquets New Chicken for 2.25m Kuwaiti dollars to add to its existing UK fast food franchise business involving 33 branches of Burger King. Kout also operates 60 Burger King, 48 Pizza Hut franchises, five Applebees and four Taco Bells sites in the Middle East – and some of its own brands such as Scoop a Cone and Ayyame. Little Chef chairman Graham Sims has stepped down to work for Kout. Of the Little Chef deal, one source told Propel last week: “The business is generally very different to the one that was in a mess. They have ideas for the estate on a site-by-site basis. Quite a few sites have vacant Burger King operations – one of the priorities is to get those areas generating a bit of cash.” Davis Coffer Lyons acted for Kout.