Burger & Sauce will target expansion in major cities across the UK, including London, as the franchise business looks to spread its footprint outside its heartland in the Midlands.
The fresh burger chain previously confirmed six new restaurants were set to open this year, in Perry Barr, Shirley, Liverpool, Manchester, Bristol and Telford.
Franchise director Anthony Round said that it was “the right time” for the franchising push after creating a “proven business model.”
“We’ve got a lot of brand awareness in our heartland, and we’re really well established in the Midlands.”
“Strategically, we’ve looking at spreading the footprint. We’ve got some good people signed up and they want to take Burger & Sauce into those new markets, which is great.”
The 13-strong concept will target “bigger” UK cities and is also keen to break into London, says Round.
“We have got to be careful there, because London is a very tough market. But it’s full of opportunity.”
Confidence in the product and offering “really good value” reassures Round that the brand could succeed in the capital.
“We think we can be very competitive in London. We can offer a great product at a really enticing price point and I think people will embrace it.”
Elsewhere, the company is exploring opportunities in Leeds and Sheffield.
“We’ve picked the big population areas in cities across the North and South.”
The brand’s initial aim was to reach the 50-60 site mark, says Round, however in the longer term he sees potential to reach 100-150.
The director says that the company is trading well across its three formats, including smaller 1000 sq ft kiosk stores in shopping centres, standard 1500 sq ft stores and larger flagship locations.
It will continue to open across all three formats, “dependent on the availability of the locations.”
“We have an offer which we can fit into any kind of location, and we can adapt accordingly”, Round says, adding that across all formats the brand has seen double digit growth in the last year.
The brand remains focused on offering a “quality, convenience offer”, with a focus on speed of service.
“We’re always evolving store design and constantly looking at improvements in terms of equipment, customer flow and efficiency”, he adds.
Round says this value offer has contributed to resilient trading, alongside a growth in brand awareness.
Burger & Sauce has also recently introduced an optimised menu offering.
“We’ve adapted our menu and we’ve launched some new products and taken some old ones off.
“It was quite limiting before, so we’ve opened it up so that customers can have more variation, when they want it.”
Technology continues to play a big part in the brand’s operational efficiency, for franchisees and customers.
“We work very closely with our EPOS suppliers and we’re always tweaking, so the franchisees can get more reporting, and the customers can get real time feedback”.
“We’re also embracing the self-service kiosks, just to make the customer experience smoother, quicker and more informative.”
