North West Deals, Property Richard Frost

A celebrity chef who has his own primetime cookery show on ITV has invested in the Manchester-headquartered owner of Piccolino and unveiled plans to launch a 250-seat restaurant in the revamped Corn Exchange.

Gino D'Acampo (pictured), the star of Gino's Italian Escape and a regular on programmes such as This Morning, has invested an undisclosed sum in Individual Restaurants and its food academy which includes an in-house butchers shop and bakery. It comes as he prepares to move into the premium casual dining market with the launch of his new restaurant brand Gino D'Acampo – My Restaurant in Manchester and London.

The Manchester branch will be located inside the revamped Corn Exchange, seat 250 guests and include a sit-at cicchetti and kitchen bar with two large outside areas of which one will lead onto Exchange Square. The London branch will be located in Euston train station.

Both restaurants are expected to open later this year, with the Manchester branch quickly following the launch of the London site. More UK sites will follow and D'Acampo also hopes to launch in international locations.

D'Acampo has teamed up with friend and business partner Steven Walker, founder of Individual Restaurant Company, for the venture. Individual Restaurants already owns 22 Piccolino Italian restaurants across the UK while its other brands include the Restaurant Bar & Grill, Bank Restaurant & Bar, Q Grill and Vintage Salt.

D'Acampo also owns an Italian food import business.

He said: "I have been approached many times over the years to open restaurants, but it was Steven's passion for Italian cucina, his eye for detail and his insistence that he would only partner me if I were truly involved that attracted me finally to take the plunge.

"I'm excited to be creating the new menus for the restaurant and I'm going to be including lots of favourites from my books and TV programmes."

The third series of Gino's Italian Escape is set to be broadcast later this year. Each series regularly attracts three million viewers and is accompanied by a best-selling cookbook.