Shake Shack, the US better burger brand, is set to open further site in London, after securing a site in Canary Wharf, MCA understands.
The company, which earlier this year secured the KFC unit in Coventry Street near Leicester Square and will also open a site in the Nova development in Victoria, is believed to have exchanged on the Canteen restaurant in Canada Square.
It is thought that Shake Shack, which currently operates four sites in the UK, has paid excess of £2m for the restaurant that was opened by Canteen in 2009. It is also thought to have beaten off interest in the site from rival Five Guys.
The sale of the site leaves Canteen with two sites in Spitalfields and Royal Festival Hall.
Talking to MCA at the start of the year, Randy Garutti, chief executive of Shake Shack, said he expected growth for the brand in the UK to continue “at a steady pace”, adding: “I would say you’ll see a couple of new Shake Shacks every year in the UK but we don’t want to put a specific number on that because that’s not how we operate.”
He added: “You’ll see a mixture of London and regional openings going forward. We certainly want to grow in London but we have no interest in getting to the point where there’s a Shake Shack on every corner there – that is not who we want to be.”
The brand launched in the UK in Covent Garden in 2013. It also operates sites in Westfield Stratford, New Oxford Street and Cardiff.
