A highly-regarded Swiss eating-out concept is to make its UK debut later this year.
Tibits, a fledgling vegetarian restaurant and takeaway concept, will open a site in Heddon Street in London’s West End in August, followed by a second in the Westfield retail and leisure development at Shepherd’s Bush.
The group, which has existing outlets in Basel, Bern, Winterthur and Zurich, was founded by three brothers – Christian, Daniel and Reto Frei – in 1999, who decided to launch the concept after winning a business plan competition organised by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and McKinsey, the professional services group.
The trio teamed up with existing restaurant entrepreneurs Rolf and Marielle Hiltl, owners of the Hiltl Restaurant – one of Europe’s oldest eateries, founded in 1898.
Reto Frei, chief operating officer, told M&C: “This is our first restaurant outside of Switzerland. We wanted to come to the UK because it’s an exciting market and we think our concept will do well. We are trying to offer vegetarian food in a fresh and stylish way – we want to prove that this type of food can be exciting.”
The Tibits menu includes coffee, salads, soups, pastries and fresh fruit juices but no meat or fish. Customers can eat in or take out and the food is priced according to weight. It trades through all day parts from breakfast through to dinner.
The company expects its average spend per head to come in at around £15 in the UK.
www.tibits.ch
