Coal Grill & Bar, the Charterhouse Leisure-owned brand, has consolidated its estate after securing further openings in Gloucester and Swindon, whilst at the same time agreeing to sell its existing site in Wimbledon to Wahaca, M&C Report understands.
The group is also about to complete a deal for a new opening in Cheshire Oaks, its first in the north west, while five further deals are in advanced negotiation, putting it well on course to achieve its objective to have at least 15 branches operating by mid 2015.
It is thought that the company has reluctantly decided to exit from its Wimbledon site after receiving an offer it was unable to turn down.
Wahaca currently has a further two sites in the pipeline in Brixton and Great Portland Street.
The site at Gloucester Quays will open this July, whilst it has exchanged contracts on a new cinema linked development in Swindon.
The company, which is led by John Gater, recently secured a further tranche of funding from existing investors as it looks to add up to 13 sites to existing estate over the next three years.
Last month Gater told M&C Report that the seven-strong group had five sites lined up for this year, a further five in the pipeline for 2015 and another three for 2016.
On the Gloucester opening, he said: “This location provides us with a great fit for our dynamic restaurants and bars. We are very excited to open a new Coal Grill and Bar at Gloucester Quays.
“This is the perfect location for our restaurant, with an attractive waterside setting and the retail and cinema complex right next door. Gloucester Quays is a key site in our expansion plans for locations across the UK in 2014.”
The recently opened a site under its new design in Milton Keynes. The updated look, which helped its Milton Keynes unit beat opening forecasts, would be used in all of the group’s new openings going forward and be rolled to its existing sites in Meadowhall, Sheffield and Bristol over the next few months.
For its future expansion, the company is concentrating on units of 3,500 to 4,000sq ft in size in “strong cinema-anchored shopping centres and leisure schemes”.
Davis Coffer Lyons acted on the Wimbledon deal.
