Tesco has acquired restaurant chain Giraffe for £48.6 million as it continues its ongoing expansion strategy.
Giraffe, a family-friendly restaurant comprises 48 sites across the UK, including franchised sites at Heathrow and other UK airports.
The original founders, married couple Russel and Juliette Joffe, and Andrew Jacobs, will remain in place, with Russel continuing as managing director.
The acquisition forms part of Tesco’s strategy to develop the space in some of its larger stores and create "compelling retail destinations" where customers can meet, eat and drink, as well as shop.
Kevin Grace, group commercial director at Tesco said: “We invest in businesses that add value for our customers online or offline; as we’ve done with Harris + Hoole, Euphorium, blinkbox, and now Giraffe.
"We have the opportunity to develop some of the space in our larger stores to create retail destinations that offer customers even more choice. Giraffe is hugely popular with a wide range of ages and particularly families – we think our customers will love it.”
The first Giraffe restaurant to open next to a Tesco store will be near London.
Earlier this month Tesco launched Clubcard TV, a service which will see the supermarket giant use loyalty data to target ads to customers.
The service, powered by movie and TV service Blinkbox, in which Tesco owns a majority (80 per cent) stake, will open up free access to movies and TV shows exclusively to Clubcard customers.
Kellogg’s, J&J and Colgate are among the first advertisers to use the service.