Zaks, the Norfolk-based restaurant chain owned by Blue Sky Leisure, is to launch a franchise scheme as it looks to open around 30 diners in the next five years moving the “local brand towards national success”.
The group, which is led by chief executive Ian Hacon, said it planned to share its “ethos for ‘customer love’ with new neighbourhoods”.
The brand, which has been trading in the Norwich area since 1976, currently has three restaurants: Zaks Waterside Grill and Bar, Zaks Mousehold Diner and Zaks Poringland Diner.
Hacon said: “We believe we have a winning formula of a great brand with a great team supporting it and this gives us a real opportunity to succeed in the franchising world.
“We are keen to replicate our neighbourhood supplier network across each of our franchise regions. In order to do this we will be enlisting the help of our current providers to assist us in finding suppliers of an equal quality in the different locations. We will however continue to produce our famous burgers in Norwich using our original recipe.”
Blue Sky Leisure currently employs more than 220 people in East Anglia. The group also owns Kelling Heath and Woodhill Holiday Parks Holiday Parks which have recently received a half million pound investment to further improve facilities. It also recently picked up a national award recognising it as the best caravan park in the country by VisitEngland.
