Kout Food Group


Kout Food Group is a Kuwaiti-based conglomerate, founded in 1982, operating in Kuwait, the United Kingdom and Kurdistan-Iraq.
In Kuwait, it operates franchises of Burger King, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
Its UK arm, Kout Food Group Restaurants UK, operates brands such as Burger King, KFC and Maison Blanc.
The business also offer catering services, import and export of food related items, representation of foreign companies as well as advising others in such businesses.
They are also known for being the rightsholders to the Little Chef name.

Little Chef

In August 2013, Kout Food Group acquired Hybrid Dining Limited from RCapital, the parent company of the Little Chef roadside restaurant chain, for £15 million. Hybrid Dining Limited also own the trademark rights to the defunct Happy Eater and Coffee Tempo! brands.
In January 2017, retaining the rights to the Little Chef name, Kout sold all the physical Little Chef premises to Euro Garages in 2017. Euro Garages would continue to operate Little Chef under license from Kout until January 2018, when they were renamed to 'EG Diners'. All EG Diner locations would be turned into franchises such as Starbucks and Greggs, or closed by October 2018.
In early 2019, Kout Food Group attracted criticism when they prevented chef Matei Baran from creating a recipe book called 'Big Chef, Little Chef' in a tribute to his son who has cystic fibrosis, a project with all proceeds going to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. The book was later released as 'Big Chef, Mini Chef'.