A HAMPSHIRE restaurant has avoided the chop after the chain it belonged to went into administration.

Nearly 400 jobs will be cut across Ed’s Easy Diner locations after the brand was bought out by Giraffe Concepts, the restaurant arm of food mogul Ranjit Boparan, but staff at the Southampton outlet will keep their jobs.

Giraffe will close 26 of the 59 American-style diners across the UK, with the loss 379 jobs as part of a pre-packaged administration sale.

However, the Southampton branch, in WestQuay’s food hall, which employs 18 staff, will remain open as will the Basingstoke outlet, which employs 11.

Rumours of Ed’s Easy Diner’s sell-off gained pace last week, with private equity firm R Capital, owner of Little Chef, previously thought to be the favourite to buy the business.

The first Ed’s Easy Diner was opened by Barry Margolis in Soho in 1987 and the company grew slowly in the first two decades and by 2008 there were just three eateries in the chain.

However, the next six years saw a period of rapid expansion in which more than 50 new diners were opened.

The company was originally put up for sale last year with a price tag of £90m, but earlier this week it was suggested in The Times that it could be sold for as little as £15m in a pre-pack administration.

Other chains in the Boparan empire include Harry Ramsdens, FishWorks and the Cinnamon Collection.

Mr Boparan, boss of Boparan Restaurant Holdings, snapped up turkey meat producer Bernard Matthews last month from private equity group Rutland Partners in another pre-pack deal through his food manufacturing company 2 Sisters Food Group.

Giraffe is also a relatively new member of Boparan’s stable, having been bought from Tesco in June this year.

In a statement, Giraffe managing director Tom Crowley said: “Ed’s Easy Diner has been an integral part of the UK casual dining scene for the past three decades and we are very excited about the business joining the group and the opportunities ahead.”

Commenting on the sale, Rob Croxen, partner at KPMG, said: “While we are pleased the transaction preserves around 700 jobs, our immediate priority in the coming days will be to liaise with those employees who have been affected by redundancy and ensure they receive all back pay owed and are provided with any assistance they need.”