Tasty, the Aim-listed restaurant operator, is to ramp up the roll out of Wildwood, its pizza and pasta concept, with at least another five openings planned for this year.
The company, which earlier this week posted its first ever pre-tax profit, secured its ninth site for the brand in Canary Wharf earlier this month and is already in talks regarding a restaurant in Paddington.
It is also in early negotiations regarding a site in Leicestershire, which would see the group break further out of its South East heartland.
The first Wildwood opened in September 2009 in Gerrards Cross, with further sites opening in Billericay, Chelmsford, Cobham, London’s Gloucester Road, Hornchurch, Loughton, and Maidstone.
The company, which is led by Jonny Plant and counts Sam and Adam Kaye as major shareholders, hopes to open a total of six new sites this year, with a similar figure mooted for 2012.
Plant told M&C Report: “We are very happy with where the concept is at present. It is working in a number of locations and across different formats and gives us the confidence to seek further openings this year.”
The Wildwood site in Cobham is the first chain has taken on a tied-lease with an unnamed pub group, and Plant said that its success meant the company had not ruled out taking on similar projects to aid its roll out target.
The success of Wildwood has seen it supersede Dim T as the chain’s core brand, but Plant is keen to point out that the company still has plans to open further restaurants under the dim sum brand, but at a “slower pace” to its sister concept. It currently operates six Dim T sites.
He said: “Wildwood will be our key driver going forward but we will still look at opportunities for Dim T, and would ideally like to roll out between one or two sites under the brand a year.”
Plant also said that there were no plans in place for the business to be taken private in the near future.
Earlier this week, Tasty announced a pre-tax profit of £244,000 for the 53 weeks to 2nd January 2011, against a loss of £2.08m during the previous 12 months. The group said that since the year end “trading has improved still further with a profitable first quarter in 2011”.
