Five Guys, the popular US burger chain, plans to further ramp up its expansion plans in the UK next year, as it gears up to open its thirtieth site here next Monday (24 August) in Milton Keynes.
UK managing director John Eckbert told M&C that the brand’s initial plan on launching in the UK was to test its model at five different styles of location, but that had changed following the success of its first site in Covent Garden.
It had aimed to have five sites open by the end of its first year, including a flagship site, a regional unit, a shopping centre site and on a leisure park
The group will open c20 sites this year in total, but Eckbert said this number will increase again in 2016.
He said: “I can’t think of any other restaurant brand in the UK that has gone from launch to 30 sites in such a short space of time. We are delighted to be launching our 30th site here, but there are plenty of more openings in the pipeline.”
The company, which launched in the UK in June 2013 with a flagship site in Covent Garden, will also open in Sheffield Meadowhall and Putney in September, after acquiring the lease of The Swift pub in Putney from Fuller’s.
It will also make its UK transport hub debut that month in Birmingham New Street station.
It is also believed to be in advanced talks on sites in Dundee, Liverpool, Leicester, Swansea and Watford.
The group has a site already secured at the Watermark scheme in Southampton for next year.
The group, which recently broke through the 1,000-employee mark in the UK, is set to make its debut in Continental Europe in Paris, in the first quarter of next year.
It is set to secure a 400-cover site in the French capital.
The company will open its first Northern Irish site in Belfast at Victoria Square in the city centre.
The group announced earlier in the year it has plans to open five sites in Dublin before expanding to Cork, Limerick and Galway.
The Irish franchise is held by Brett, Ross and Derry Desmond, sons of financer and businessman Dermot Desmond.
