Casual Dining Group (CDG) is to invest £4m opening five new Bella Italia sites over the next 10 weeks will include two firsts for the chain.
The openings, which will generate more than 200 new jobs, will include the brand’s first retail park site that will open in Bristol, next week; while Hemel Hempstead will see the unveiling of the biggest ever Bella at 5,500sq ft and 220 covers in July.
The new openings are at Abbey Wood Retail Park, Filton, Bristol, on Bank Holiday Monday 6 April; Bishop Centre, Taplow, near Maidenhead; Castlegate, Dudley; Ashton Leisure Park, Ashton-under-Lyne, all in May; and Jarman Fields, Hemel Hempstead, in July. Total number of covers across the five sites is almost 650.
The company described securing the Hemel Hempstead site as ‘hugely significant’.
CDG property director Phil Derbyshire said: “These openings, all within a few weeks of each other, demonstrate perfectly our strategy of targeting out-of-town leisure and retail schemes in, or close to, high catchment areas, while continuing to open sites on busy high street and in prime shopping centres across the UK.
“For example Bristol, which leads the way, is on a well-established scheme with a catchment of around 382,000 people, and as a result is busy all day with shoppers, students, commuters and office workers. It’s our fourth Bella in city, and provides a real platform for further expansion into the south west.”
Bella Italia has signed 15-year leases on all five units, which will be open all day, serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
It now has 90 restaurants across England, Scotland and Wales, with recent new openings including Peterborough, Milton Keynes and Bexleyheath.
