KPMG has sold British motorway chain Little Chef to Kuwait-based Kout Food Group in a deal worth around £15m for private equity firm RCapital, which bought the iconic company out of administration in 2007.

RCapital described the sale as the conclusion to the 'biggest and longest turnaround in our nine-year history'. Kout also owns the Maison Blanc bakery chain in southern England and more than 40 Burger King and KFC outlets in Britain and Kuwait.

RCapital paid around £9m for Little Chef, which is famous for its 'Fat Charlie' logo and all-day 'Olympic' fried breakfasts, following its collapse six years ago. The company shut almost two-thirds of Little Chef's 234 sites, reducing outlets to 78 across the UK, cut the 4000 workforce and enlisted the help of celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal in a television series.

In April this year RCapital asked KPMG to find a buyer for the company, saying it had repositioned the business and brought the group back into profitability.

Jamie Constable, chief executive of RCapital, said: 'Having owned Little Chef for a long time it feels like we are selling part of ourselves. But we take comfort from the fact that the new owners will take the brand to the next /stage.'

The first Little Chef opened in Reading in 1958 and the company has had several owners since then including Trusthouse Forte, Granada and Compass, as well as private equity companies.