Slim Chickens, the fast-casual, US restaurant chain which specialises in chicken tenders and wings, is planning to launch in the UK, MCA has learnt.
The c70-strong brand is understood to be working with Boparan Restaurant Group (BRG), which operates the Giraffe, Harry Ramsden’s and Ed’s Easy Diner brands, on its launch here.
It recently appointed advisors to seek out sites in central London and the south east for the brand, which was founded in 2003 by Tom Gordon, Greg Smart, and Ryan Hodson. The first location opened in 2003, inside a former sushi restaurant in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Slim Chickens now operates c70 sites across 11 states in the US.
The link up with Slim Chickens, comes as BRG has further strengthened its head office team, with a further recruit from The Restaurant Group, in operations director John Cheetham.
Cheetham joins BRG after two and a half years at TRG, where he started as a regional director, before recently becoming operations and proposition director.
BRG recently announced a number of changes to its executive board, to come into force in the coming weeks.
The group appointed Nick Smith to the newly created role of commercial director. He joined from TRG where he was director of purchasing for over a decade.
Simon D’Cruz took on the role of finance director, following Will Franklin’s decision to step down. He joined from Domino’s Pizza Group where he was co-finance director and prior to that, held senior finance posts with British Telecom, Delta Airlines and PWC.
Last year, the company strengthened its head office team with the appointment of two former TRG employees.
James Haigh, who spent over 10 years at TRG, joined BRG as its new head of people for Ed’s, Fishworks and its Burgers & Cocktails concept. He was previously head of HR at Frankie & Benny’s.
At the same time, Steve Leddington joined the Tom Crowley-led group as its new head of property.
Leddington was a property project manager at TRG for that last two years. Before that he was a group development manager at Giraffe for over a year.
At the end of 2016, BRG appointed James Atherton, former HR director of TRG, to the newly created role of people director.
