The owner of Wagamama has said it is targeting between 200 and 220 restaurants in the long-term, up from its current estate of around 160 UK sites.
The Restaurant Group said that strong returns from regional restaurants has given it confidence to accelerate its expansion plans, with the aim of now opening between eight to 10 sites from the 2024 financial year onwards.
This comes as the group, which also owns the Frankie & Benny’s chain and the Brunning & Price pub group, releases its interim results for the first half of the 2023 financial year. The group said it was also aiming to open between one to three “high quality” Brunning & Price pubs from the 2024 financial year onwards.
The Restaurant Group said that despite more resilient trading in the third quarter, it has continued to rationalise its leisure estate. It now expects to reduce the size of this business to around 76 sites by the end of the financial year, down from 116 sites previous year. This would mean that the group’s two-year rationalisation programme would be delivered in 12 months.
