Korean 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 a rollout that has taken Bunsik from a single company-owned concept to a franchised network across England.
Bunsik, known for Korean corn dogs, tteokbokki and kimbap, launched in London in 2021 under Maguro Group, a UK food and beverage operator with more than 20 years’ trading history and a reported £28 million turnover. The brand sits within the UK’s wider fast food franchise sector, and began franchising in 2025 after several years of company-led openings, when founder Jae Cho set an ambition of reaching 54 UK sites. The Coventry and Birmingham openings are its first in the Midlands.
Coventry and Birmingham mark the Midlands debut
Bunsik opens in Coventry this month, followed by a site at Birmingham’s Bullring in October, both run by ZK Group, which previously opened the brand’s first site in Plymouth. “Coventry and Birmingham are exciting milestones for Bunsik as we continue bringing Korean street food to more communities across the UK,” said Jae Cho, Bunsik’s founder. Zubair Ali, director of ZK Group, said the response to the Plymouth site had given the franchise partner “great confidence in the brand’s potential beyond London and South England.”
A franchise rollout built through repeat operators
Bunsik’s first franchisee, Will Bray, a former multi-unit Subway franchisee, opened the brand’s Bristol site on Saturday 20 September 2025 then a second site at Southampton’s Westquay in April 2026, taking the network to 10 restaurants at that point. Vicente Marti of CMB Hospitality opened Bunsik’s first franchised London site, in Brixton, ahead of a second Manchester restaurant at the Trafford Centre in May 2026. ZK Group’s Plymouth opening, followed now by Coventry and Birmingham, extends the same pattern seen across many UK restaurant franchises, where existing partners take on further sites rather than new entrants joining site by site.
Good to know
Bunsik operated as a company-owned chain from its 2021 launch until 2025, when it began signing individual franchise partners for new UK sites. Several of its franchisees, including Will Bray and ZK Group, have gone on to open more than one location, a pattern known as multi-unit franchising. Readers weighing up the company-owned stage many brands go through before franchising can see the practical steps involved in our guide to opening a restaurant in the UK.
Further UK cities likely to follow
Bunsik has not published an updated total site count since the Southampton opening in April, when the network stood at 10 restaurants, though Manchester, Brixton, Plymouth, Coventry and Birmingham have all been added since. With a 54-site ambition still standing and existing franchise partners such as ZK Group opening repeat locations, further Midlands and regional openings are likely, though Bunsik has not confirmed specific future sites beyond Coventry and Birmingham.
