FT Foods Limited, a newly incorporated Company owned by Fazan Tahir, has recently completed the multi-million-pound acquisition of 7 KFC restaurants in London. The restaurants were acquired from KFC UK & Ireland, forming part of its wider refranchising programme. The acquirer was advised by sector specialists, Smith Cooper Corporate Finance.

FT Foods is part of a wider grouping of companies created by the successful Tahir Group, a London-based property development and investment group operating KFC restaurants and Starbucks Coffee shops.

The group was started up in 1978, Fazan entering the business in the mid-1990s and quickly developing to become the principal executive operator. Under his stewardship the KFC operations have grown faster organically than any other franchisee-owned business in London and, since the early 1980s, have won a continuous stream of operational and customer-service awards. The family businesses now very successfully operate 25 KFC restaurants.

Food and beverage specialists, John Farnsworth and David Crump, at Smith Cooper Corporate Finance assisted FT Foods in developing a bid document, agreeing terms with KFC’s advisers and project-managing the transaction through to completion.