Top 100: Ranjit Singh Boparan, Boparan Restaurant Holdings

Overall ranking: 84 (new entry)
Restaurateur ranking: 25 (new entry)

Snapshot

What we think
The famously media-shy Boparan has always let his money do the talking. Valued at £544m by The Sunday Times Rich List, it wasn’t always thus for the West Midlander. After leaving school at 16, he spent his early working life in a local butcher’s shop before founding 2 Sisters Food Group in 1993 with a bank loan. In the years since, the group has become the UK’s second largest food business by turnover, while its dominance in the poultry market has seen Boparan dubbed ‘the Chicken King’.

Boparan’s first foray into the restaurant business saw him buy four of the 10 Fishworks sites in 2009 through his private investment vehicle, Boparan Ventures. The following year Boparan Ventures acquired all 36 Harry Ramsden’s outlets, with a promise to add an extra 100 sites to the long-standing fish-and-chip brand. That promise hasn’t yet been met â€" seven years later â€" and the list of locations stands at 37.

However, it was 2016 that Boparan made his real mark, adding the 57-strong Giraffe Concepts and Cinnamon Collection (comprising fine-dining Indian restaurants Cinnamon Club, Cinnamon Kitchen and Cinnamon Soho, all in London) to a new company, Boparan Restaurant Holdings, as well 33 Ed’s Easy Diners to his company Boparan Private Office. This time the promise of expansion is being fulfilled â€" with two sites added to the Cinnamon Collection during the past year.

In October 2017 undercover reporting revealed poor hygiene standards and food safety records being altered in one of his chicken plants â€" a fact at odds with Boparan’s dedication to training and developing their workforce. The company has previously talked of its pride at a record of putting employees through NVQs on factory and farm production.

Those close to Boparan describe him as a down-to-earth grafter. “He doesn’t own fancy yachts or drive fast cars. You couldn’t find someone more straightforward,” a colleague told The Observer in 2011. With his wife Baljinder, the group’s only other shareholder, Boparan is able to operate quickly without shareholders breathing down his neck.

Further information
Giraffe owner buys 33 Ed’s Easy Diners, 26 in administration >>

Vivek Singh to open Cinnamon Bazaar in Covent Garden >>

More than £10m to be invested for Cinnamon Collection expansion >>