Abokado, the London-based chain of healthy food bars run by Mark Lilley, has lined up a pipeline of sites to reach 30 by spring 2015 before looking to expand nationwide in the next 18 months, M&C Report has learnt.
Lilley said he “is confident” Abokado will reach 30 sites by spring next year having completed a site at Old Street Roundabout yesterday, which will be its second site on City Road. This will bring the estate to 24 and sites 25 and 26 are under offer.
“The market in London is growing and we have not even started growing nationwide yet because we have not yet needed to. We thought if we could keep growing in central London where we know and it’s a lower risk then why venture into cities that are an unknown?” Lilley said.
He said the resources have not previously been in place to run the business on a larger scale in a way he would want to but this is now changing. This year Lilley said he has spent a lot of his time putting in key personnel to prepare for expansion.
“There’s no shadow of a doubt this has very broad appeal. There’s a massive pent up demand for healthy food that’s affordable and accessible.”
The group has “looked in detail at other cities” to make its regional debut away from the capital and is anticipating beginning to expand nationwide in 2016.
“We are not going to do it half-cocked. We want to be confident in doing two or three in one city at once. We want to be confident we can have half a dozen in that part of the country.”
