L’Osteria, the pizza and pasta casual dining concept, has secured the second UK site of a franchise commitment to open 30 in 12 years, MCA has learnt.
The venture is being led by Pru Naik, formerly the largest McDonalds franchisee in the UK, who owns the UK licence and plans to target university towns.
L’Osteria, which is an established brand in mainland Europe, opened its first restaurant in 1999 and operates 45 restaurants across Germany and Austria.
The first UK site is due to open soon in Bristol, followed by Southampton in March 2017, with a potneital third after the summer.
Naik, who has more than 30 years’ experience in the hospitality and restaurant industry, said: “Our concept is nothing different but what we can offer the customer is good portions, great prices, and an exciting ambience. We’ve spent a lot of time getting the music and lighting right. We think we’ve got a niche in the market we can fill.
“All the market trends say pasta is going to grow, it’s a highly competitive market with a lot of big players. I think we can bring that fresh authentic and good value for money.”
Naik said we had made some tweaks to the concept in the UK, swapping turkey which is popular in Europe, for chicken, while introducing cocktails such as mojitos and cosmopolitans.
The brand will target universities towns with 250k plus populations in locations with high footfall and more affordable rents than London.
On finance, Nail added: “At the moment we’re self-financed. We didn’t want pressure of debt repayment to begin with. But in the future we will look at financing at the right time.”
