Cooks Food Group has entered two conditional sale and purchase agreements to acquire the master franchise of Esquires Coffee Houses in Great Britain and Ireland.

In Great Britain the agreement will see Cooks acquire the rights to five company owned and 24 franchised Esquires Coffee outlets.   

Cooks will attain the rights to five franchises when it takes over from Esquires Coffee Houses Ireland, and two more are under negotiation.

To ensure continuity of operations Cooks will continue to employ Esquires’ current managing directors, Peter Kirton in the UK, and Tony McVerry in Ireland post-completion.

Cooks announced its acquisition of Franchise Development Limited (FDL), the company previously owned by the brand’s founders Stuart and Lewis Deeks in June.

FDL and its sister companies have the master franchising rights to Esquires Coffee in a number of other countries.

All agreements are, or will be subject to, approval by Cooks shareholders under the Companies Act 1993, the NZAX Listing Rules and, where applicable, the Takeovers Code.

Cooks subsequently intends to hold a shareholders’ meeting in early August.

FDL has also opened a new Esquires store in Kuwait, bringing the total number of Esquires Coffee Houses in the Middle East to 12.