Iberica, the four-strong group of upmarket Spanish restaurants, is on the brink of signing a £3m deal with Santander to fund the next stage of its expansion, M&C Report has learnt.
The company, headed by managing director Marcos Fernandez Pardo, will use this second tranche of finance from the Spanish bank to open its fifth site, in Leeds, this August and a sixth in Victoria, London at a later date to be confirmed.
The Leeds restaurant, in a former auction house on East Street, will include the firm’s first wine bar. This will also be home to a wine club enabling customers to store their purchases within the site’s wine cellar.
Iberica Leeds will complement the group’s Manchester unit which opened last month at Spinningfields and was the second, after Farringdon, of two restaurants that opened under a previous £2m deal with Santander.
Fernandez Pardo confirmed the company intends to grow to ten sites by the end of 2016 and said Glasgow and Edinburgh are the next target locations.
The firm is also working on its next three-year business plan.
