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Jersey Mike’s confirms first UK restaurant for London
10/09/2026US sandwich chain Jersey Mike's will open its first UK restaurant on Argyll Street, near Oxford Circus in London, in late autumn 2026, marking the brand's European debut. The opening follows a franchise agreement announced in January 2026 committing to…
Zambrero opens 17th UK restaurant in Northampton
10/09/2026Zambrero has opened its 17th UK restaurant, in Brackmills, Northampton, the Mexican-inspired chain's first site in Northamptonshire. The unit is run by Caleb Slater, a 20-year-old first-time hospitality entrepreneur, and has created ten full and part-time jobs. The opening is…
XP Factory’s franchised estate shrinks as owner-operated sites grow
08/09/2026XP Factory's audited results for the year to 29 March 2026 show group turnover up 3% to £59.6 million and adjusted EBITDA down to £5.5 million. For a franchise audience the figures underneath matter more: Escape Hunt's franchised sites fell…
7th Heaven confirms 13 more UK shops and 56 franchise agreements signed
08/09/20267th Heaven, the Indian bakery chain that opened its first UK shop in Reading in September 2025, now puts its UK estate at 13 shops trading, with 13 more in the pipeline and 56 franchise agreements signed. The next wave…
Fireaway Pizza opens its first convenience store concession
04/09/2026Fireaway Pizza has opened a concession inside a convenience store, launching a pizza counter within the Welcome Rickmansworth store run by Southern Co-op franchise partner Dilan Patel. Fireaway operates 160 UK restaurants and has opened more than 100 of them…
Houston Hot Chicken, backed by PizzaExpress, confirms second UK restaurant
03/09/2026PizzaExpress, which holds the UK franchise rights to Houston Hot Chicken, will open the American hot chicken chain's second UK restaurant this winter at the Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury. The opening follows Houston Hot Chicken's first UK site in Stevenage,…
Din Tai Fung to open fifth London restaurant, in King’s Cross
03/09/2026Din Tai Fung, the Taiwanese dumpling chain operated in the UK under franchise by Singapore's BreadTalk Group, will open its fifth London restaurant at Lewis Cubitt Walk in King's Cross this December. The site adds to existing restaurants in Covent…
Bunsik opens in Coventry and Birmingham, its first Midlands sites
03/09/2026Korean street food chain Bunsik will open two Midlands sites this autumn, in Coventry this month and at Birmingham's Bullring in October, extending its franchise partnership with ZK Group after the operator's earlier launch in Plymouth. The Midlands debut continues…
Black Sheep Coffee opens first UK drive-thru, in Blackburn
02/09/2026Black Sheep Coffee opened its first UK drive-thru this week, a new format at Townsmoor Retail Park in Blackburn built and run by a Lancashire-based franchise team. The site is the coffee chain's second in the county after a Lancaster…
Sun, sea and sausage rolls – Greggs eyes expansion abroad again
01/06/2026British bakery chain Greggs is opening its first overseas outlet in nearly two decades at Tenerife South Airport later this month, in partnership with Lagardere Travel Retail. The shop will sit in the international departures area and target the roughly…
