Leon founder John Vincent has revealed the healthy fast food chain is going to be launching an Asia-inspired concept, as it looks to continue on its growth trajectory.
“We are doing a new concept, which is going to be more in the Asian space, using a Leon-type kitchen, which is going to be coming in April,” he said.
Vincent also told MCA that the business was looking to open circa six Leon sites in the UK this year – “but we should probably be opening 10”. “We will be doing 60-70% of what we said, two years ago, we would be doing,” he said, explaining this was predominately due to cost pressures, including rising rents.
Its next two openings will be in London – one in Westminster in the summer and one in west London in the autumn, however Vincent said he was on the lookout for suitable sites in Norwich and Bristol.
On its plans for expansion in the US, Vincent told MCA that in order to gain any real brand recognition, the brand would need to grow to a sizeable scale.
“Long-term, in order to be seen as a proper fast food brand, which is what we have to be to succeed, we will need to have quite a few sites – at least a few hundred,” he said.
Its first US site, which will be operated by Leon, is due open in Washington DC in October, but Vincent is keen to look further afield.
“We also want to look at Denver and Austin,” he said, adding that middle American and the West Coast would require roll-out via a partnership as the chain wouldn’t easily be able to manage a site that far away.
He also told MCA that expansion in the US wouldn’t necessarily follow the same path as Leon has gone down in the UK. “We want to be in ball parks and shopping malls, we want to do drive-thrus, we want to do fast food,” he said, “we don’t need to just be the city centre worker population grab and go concept, we have got to move ourselves into fast food so we are looking at a few leftfield locations.”
