London, 9 October 2009

Jamal Hirani, the former Chief Executive Officer of Gourmet Restaurants Ltd, the owner of fast food chain 'TiffinBites', 'The Bombay Bicycle Club' and 'Vama' is suing new owners the V8 Gourmet Group for unfair dismissal. Hirani, an ex-Marks and Spencer lingerie buyer, co-founded Tiffinbites in 2002 with plans to open 52 outlets within five years, but the group ran into financial difficulties in 2008. ICICI Bank, funders of Gourmet Restaurants Ltd, put the company into "pre-packaged" administration in January 2009 and subsequently sold it to Anoup Treon's V8 Gourmet Group who claim to have "inherited" many employees (from restaurant staff to senior managers), including chef Andy Varma, his brother Arjun Varma and Jamal Hirani.

In August 2009, Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty and her fiancée Raj Kundra invested £6 million for a 33% stake in the new business. Shetty and Executive Chef Andy Varma announced plans to launch a range of convenience foods under the 'Gourmet Creations' brand name. Following the hearing of the tribunal case for unfair dismissal, the V8 Gourmet Group issued a statement saying that "Raj and Shilpa have no knowledge of or involvement with Mr Hirani or his claims".

Hirani is claiming £1.5million in compensation at the Watford employment tribunal and plans to launch a further High Court action claiming for the equivalent value of his 30% in the former business. The V8 Gourmet Group statement read that "in December 2008, the Directors suspended Mr Hirani pending an independent investigation of the cause of the (financial) difficulties" of the old company which was subsequently placed into "pre-packaged" administration in January 2009.

For further information, click below:
Shilpa Shetty buys into lucrative curry business (24 August 2009)
Anoup Treon's V8 Gourmet acquires troubled Tiffinbites Group (19 January 2009)
Tiffinbites now Britain's largest Indian restaurant group (18 July 2008)
Tiffinbites launches in the UK (28 January 2003)