Patisserie Holdings, the AIM-list group, has appointed Nicola Hedley, formerly of Costa, as the new marketing director of its core brand Patisserie Valerie, as it looks to add furthers sites under its brasserie format and at transport hubs, M&C Report understands.
Hedley joins the brand, which has ramped up its marketing function recently, after six years as a marketing manager at Costa. Previous to that she spent six years as a national accounts manager at Diageo.
Her appointment comes as the group looks open a further two units under its brasserie format and its fourth unit within a Next store, in Hounslow.
Chief executive Paul May told M&C Report that the company was pleased with trading over the summer and that it had a strong pipeline for the next 12 months.
The group has opened 10 new sites since its joined AIM earlier this year and plans to open up to 20 units in its current financial year.
May said that the group’s first roadside site at the services near Beaconsfield had performed well: “It has definitely given us the confidence to explore further roadside openings.
“The two brasserie sites in Glasgow and Aberdeen our performing in line and we expect to open two more under the format out of the next 10 sites we open.”
The company recently opened its first site in Wales, at the St David’s Shopping Centre in Cardiff. It has also opened its second site in Cambridge and a new unit in Maidstone.
It has openings in Wimbledon and Worcester lined up before the end of 2014.
Announcing plans to float on AIM in April, Patisserie Holdings said it had identified over 250 further potential sites in the UK with similar characteristics to those currently trading under its brands, and that further opportunities exist in retail parks, concessions, service stations, transport terminals and brasseries.
