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Millionaire entrepreneur takes over iconic brand (From Asian Image)
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Millionaire entrepreneur takes over iconic brand
6:20pm Wednesday 20th January 2010
Harry Ramsden’s, the world’s most famous fish and chip shop brand, has been bought by an Asian multi-millionaire businessman who has pledged to put it “ back on the map”.
Harry Ramsden’s includes the world’s biggest fish and chip restaurant at White Cross, Guiseley, where the original business began in 1928.
The latest deal comes as fish and chips celebrate their 150th birthday with the Harry Ramsden’s chain becoming part of Boparan Ventures Limited, run by entrepreneur Ranjit Boparan.
The Midlands-based entrepreneur formed Boparan Ventures two years ago to invest in under-performing businesses with long-term growth potential and last year rescued the flagging Fishworks restaurant chain.
Mr Boparan, 43, plans to expand Harry Ramsden’s current chain of 36 outlets by opening 100 new sites over the next five years, creating 600 jobs.
He said: “Harry Ramsden’s is a great British institution and we want to put it back on the map by focusing on the fundamental basics of superb service, exceptional value and, most importantly, the best tasting fish and chips you can buy.”
Ranjit Boparan is one of the UK’s most successful self-made entrepreneurs, owning a number of businesses in the food sector, with more than 6,000 employees worldwide and combined annual sales of almost £1bn.
The new chief executive of Harry Ramsden’s is Marija Simovic, a 20-year veteran of the food industry.
The secret recipe used by Harry Ramsden when he started selling fish and chips from a ten foot by six foot wooden hut which is preserved at White Cross is still used today.
The UK has an estimated 10,500 fish and chip shops in a market worth around £1.2bn.
One in six UK adults enjoys fish and chips at least once a week, making it the nation’s favourite takeaway.
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Your Say YourAsian Image
albion, west riding says...
9:11pm Wed 20 Jan 10
webess wrote:Most amusing, but I think he is a Seikh.
He could call it Harry Ramadans...
albion, west riding says...
9:15pm Wed 20 Jan 10
albion wrote:Apologies! Sikh.
webess wrote:Most amusing, but I think he is a Seikh.
He could call it Harry Ramadans...
Patrick Bateman, says...
9:31pm Wed 20 Jan 10
webess wrote:Ha! Good gag, sir!
He could call it Harry Ramadans...
Up with the partridge, Norwich says...
12:06am Thu 21 Jan 10
Avro, Bradford says...
8:24am Thu 21 Jan 10
giveover, imback says...
11:58am Thu 21 Jan 10
tyker, midland road says...
12:09pm Thu 21 Jan 10
We use murgatroyds--far better quality etc etc,
as for closing the Guseley branch down:it is a possibility:just look at the prime land it sits on: loads of space for JCT to build a garage supermarket selling Skodas
Steve Mac for the Sack., Bradford says...
6:01pm Thu 21 Jan 10
And there is a babe of a waitress that always serves me. yeyy.
lazybeat, Bradford says...
8:27pm Thu 21 Jan 10
albion, west riding says...
8:34pm Thu 21 Jan 10
lazybeat wrote:Not a great amount of freedom for the canon fodder masses though.
Typical english comments if the natives knew how to run a business it would not take and asian to fix your problems. Remember the recession, yes the US and UK also pulled the country into bankruptcy. If you want to know how be a success look at China with an awsome 8.7% growth.
The `natives` created this wonderful utopia which allows such business men to thrive.
lazybeat, Bradford says...
9:04pm Fri 22 Jan 10
albion, west riding says...
9:28pm Fri 22 Jan 10
lazybeat wrote:Did you mean EMPLOYMENT? and OFF taxpayers?
The natives are not the only people who created a utopia for business to thrive. Its unfortunate the readers of the T&A always like to winge on how bad Bradford has become in terms of imployment but when someone tries to do something positive they are also the ones to criticise. To be honest on reading most of the comments the majority of T&A readers seem to be uneducated, homebound, unemployed prats who just sponge of taxpayers like myself.
There are a good number of contributors here who are at work and visit the site during breaks and a few others who are retired.
The majority of T&A readers probably never comment on this forum, of those who do the unemployed ones are not necessarily prats.
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webess, says...
8:49pm Wed 20 Jan 10