Yorkshire restaurant group to create 150 new jobs with world food venue and hotel scheme in Bradford

Jinnah Group, the Yorkshire-based restaurant chain, has unveiled plans to open a world food restaurant, an events and conferencing venue and a boutique hotel in Bradford.

The group is planning to launch the new venue after buying Kingfisher House, located on Filey Street, with a £650k loan from Lloyds Bank.

Redevelopment by Jinnah Group and Mi7 Developments, the Kingfisher House scheme will create more than 150 new jobs. The group plans to invest more than £2.5m into converting the building.

The 35,000 sq ft development will also house a specialist “Centre of Excellence” in Asian cuisine chef training, where students will obtain classroom learning combined with on the job experience in the on-site restaurant.

The new world food restaurant will offer a range of foods including Kashmiri, Chinese, Italian, Mexican and Mediterranean. The development will also have a rooftop dining area.

A boutique hotel with 25 beds will also support the events space. The venue will have a large car parking facility with approximately over 250 spaces.

Jinnah Group is a family owned company with six restaurants across Yorkshire. The company was founded in 1994 and specialises in traditional Kashmiri Indian cuisine.

Saleem Akhtar, managing director at Jinnah Group, said: “The curry industry in the UK is worth an estimated £4bn, with £500m attributed to Bradford, alone.

“Our plans for Kingfisher House will help cement Bradford’s title as the UK’s curry capital, with our Centre of Excellence training school providing highly skilled chefs for the growing industry.

“We’ve worked with the team at Lloyds Bank since we began and they’ve always shown a strong understanding of our business. With their support, we’ve been able to grow the firm from a small catering service through to the popular Kashmiri dining chain it’s known as today.”

Lee Rycraft, relationship director for SME Banking at Lloyds Bank, added: “The redevelopment of Kingfisher House will create a significant source of employment in the city, while injecting a new lease of life to a disused building and the surrounding area.

“Lloyds Bank is committed to helping Britain prosper by supporting ambitious businesses like Jinnah Group, which is why we’ve grown our net lending to SMEs by 30 per cent since 2011.”