Oriental's production kitchen sold

London-based Oriental Restaurants has sold its central production kitchen for £600,000 to an unnamed buyer.

The kitchen, in Park Royal, west London, was set up last year to provide food for the group's fledgling chain of mid-market restaurants, Yellow River Café.

But the investment proved costly and led to a series of disappointing financial results for the company.

Oriental said that because there were only a handful of Yellow River Cafés, the kitchen was not likely to reach full capacity for some time and would remain a drain on resources.

A spokeswoman said Oriental was still committed to expanding the Yellow River Café chain and the new owners of the production kitchen had entered into an agreement to supply the Yellow River restaurants.

The spokeswoman described as "speculation" a report in the Sunday Business newspaper that the loss-making Pacific Oriental restaurant in the City of London could be sold to off-licence and café-bar operator Parisa.