Wikipedia
In July 1977, the business was acquired by
United Biscuits.
[14] By the end of the 1980s, Wimpy was beginning to lose ground to
McDonald’s, which had opened its first restaurant in the country in 1974, and so the new management of Wimpy began to streamline the business, by converting some of the traditional
table service restaurants to counter service. When United Biscuits decided to divest its restaurant division in 1989, it sold the business to
Grand Metropolitan (now
Diageo). At the time of the sale, there were 381 locations in the United Kingdom. Grand Metropolitan had acquired
Burger King the previous year, and it began to convert the
counter service restaurants to Burger King since it had a greater global brand recognition.
[15]
In February 1990, the remaining 216 table service restaurants were purchased by a management buyout, backed by
3i.
[16] These were locations that were considered less desirable by Grand Metropolitan. At the time of the buyout, there were also 140 franchised locations outside of the United Kingdom. In October 1999, Wimpy rolled out a chain of restaurants known as
Dr. Beaks, to take on brands such as
KFC.
[17]
A second management buyout occurred in May 2002, backed by the
Bank of Scotland.
[18] At the time of the sale in 2002, there were approximately 300 locations in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
On 27 February 2007,
Famous Brands, which owns the Wimpy franchise in South Africa, announced that it had acquired Wimpy UK.
[21][22] Having acquired the brand, Famous Brands has rebranded Wimpy in the United Kingdom, to bring it in line with Wimpy South Africa. The "new" logo is actually the one used by Wimpy UK from the 1960s until the 1980s. In November 2009, Famous Brands began to upgrade its 170 locations in the United Kingdom to resemble United States-style diners.
[23] As of March 2019, only 67 restaurants remain in the United Kingdom,