Red Fort restaurant on the market for £40k a year

A popular Indian restaurant in Wolverhampton city centre has been put up for lease by its owners, it emerged today.

The Red Fort restaurant in Fold Street will keep its name but owner Shander Herian wants to take a back-seat role.

The 49-year-old confirmed the family-run business was available to let and he is looking for a new tenant.

Red Fort's lease is on the market for £120,000 and carries an annual rent of £40,000. Mr Herian currently runs the business with his wife Gurjeet, aged 48, and his daughters Jay, 23, and Priya, 18.

The 160-seat restaurant employs about 10 people. The majority of these are part-time.

He today assured that jobs were safe, saying: "We are not closing down and all of those jobs will stay. It is only the management who will go.

"We have put the business up to let to see what interest we can get and we have had two or three parties interested so far.

"If the right person comes along, we will let them take it over.

"Otherwise we will carry on and be here for a few more years.

"We always intended to lease the business, even when we took over just under four years ago, and now is an ideal time for us to bow out and let someone else take over."

Mr Herian, of Bridgnorth Road in Shipley, said his family had taken the decision to step down because his youngest daughter was due to start university in September, while his oldest had recently graduated.

He added: "My daughters should be concentrating on their studies which is one of the main reasons behind this.

"I am also trying to take things a bit easier myself.

"We are just dipping our toe in the water at the moment by offering the business for let and will see what happens."

Having been blinded at the age of 11 due to a rare allergic reaction to antibiotics, Mr Herian had an intricate medical procedure in 1996 that allowed him to regain his sight.

The £20,000 NHS operation involved him having a tooth removed, which was then fitted with a plastic lens and placed beneath his cheek in a separate procedure three months later.