Tortilla secures Soho site for ‘baby Tortilla’

Tortilla is looking to open a further London site, in Soho, which will come under its ‘baby Tortilla’ format, MCA has learnt.

The Quilvest-backed fast-casual concept has secured the former Hummus Bros site at 88 Wardour Street, and is understood to be close to exchanging on another four sites.

The company had submitted a planning application to Westminster City Council for a change of use at the Soho restaurant, from Class A1 use to A3, however the application was then withdrawn earlier this month.

Richard Morris, managing director, Tortilla, told MCA that following the submission of the application, the council had ruled that the site was in fact a ’nil licence’ location, rather than A1, but that the business was welcome to reapply on that basis.

Morris said it was “very much” still hoping to open in that location. “We are quite excited about it and keen to do it. We are obviously hopeful we will get the licence for it, but it has dragged the process on for another eight weeks,” he added.

He said that while the definition of what consists of a ‘baby Tortilla’ site is flexible to some extent, the Soho site would come under that umbrella due to the fact it is under 1,000 sq ft in size. “Our ‘baby Tortilla’ sites tend to be in areas where there is a big demand for delivery, so while we would say it will be a ‘baby Tortilla’, we are hoping it will also do a big in-house trade as well,” he said.

Following its 6% uplift in like-for-likes seen for the 2018, he said that sales in January were up on last year, and has generally had a pretty good start to 2019.

Tortilla is due to open its site on Oxford’s Cornmarket Street in May/June time this year, he said.