Camile Thai has opened in Southsea, Portsmouth, its seventh UK restaurant, and plans to open in Southampton in late 2026 or early 2027. The Irish franchised Thai chain, whose two UK companies went into liquidation in 2023, now says it wants a UK estate as large as its Irish one.
Camile Thai was founded in Ireland in 2010 and now runs 47 restaurants, 40 of them in Ireland. Its seven UK sites are split between five in England and two in Northern Ireland, a small presence among the restaurant franchises recruiting in the UK. The brand’s UK website lists Southsea, Winchester, Winton in Dorset, Clapham and Epsom in England, and Ballyhackamore and Lisburn Road in Belfast, with Southampton marked as coming soon. The group also runs seven Petite Camile units and 15 sites of its Indian concept, Thindi, in Ireland.
A second Hampshire site on Albert Road
The Southsea restaurant occupies the former Gourmet Piri Piri unit on Albert Road. It is the brand’s second site in Hampshire, after Winchester, which opened in 2023. Southampton would make a third. Katie Gribben, who leads Camile’s expansion, told Propel: “We hope to grow the brand to a similar size in the UK as in Ireland, if not bigger.” Propel reports that the franchise model is performing well, although the brand has not published UK trading figures.
What went wrong in 2023
The return follows a failed first attempt. In April 2023, Camile Thai Kitchen (UK) Ltd and Camile Thai Franchise (UK) Limited entered liquidation, with liabilities of £4.6 million, including £2.9 million owed to the Irish parent. The UK business had run six sites in London and Surrey, and three outlets kept trading under franchise agreements. Founder Brody Sweeney blamed high delivery-platform commissions in London, telling the Irish Times: “It’s a failure of the business model, rather than people didn’t like our Thai food.”
A return that avoids central London
At the time, Sweeney said he hoped to bring the brand back to the UK within one to two years, while it concentrated on reaching 50 sites in Ireland. “Companies like Deliveroo and Just Eat are much stronger in London than in Ireland. They charge very high commissions for businesses,” he said. The return has taken longer than that, and has largely avoided the capital: of the six London and Surrey sites affected by the liquidation, only Clapham and Epsom appear on the brand’s current UK list. The new growth is on the south coast and in Belfast.
A franchisor registered in Dublin recruiting in the UK also raises the question of which country’s law governs the contract, one of the devolved and cross-border differences covered in UK franchise law: how England, Scotland and Northern Ireland differ.
Good to know
Camile’s franchisor company, Camile Franchising Limited, is registered in Dublin. Its franchise page, written for the Irish market, puts the total investment for a high street restaurant at €250,000 to €450,000 with at least €100,000 of personal capital. Camile does not publish separate figures for the UK.
Southampton next, and a smaller format in reserve
Southampton is the next confirmed UK opening. In Ireland, Camile has been growing its small-footprint Petite Camile format through partners in travel and forecourt sites, including SSP at airports and Circle K at motorway service stations, with a Dublin Connolly station unit among three openings in early 2026. Whether that format crosses to the UK is the open question for its growth beyond the high street. The Belfast restaurants, meanwhile, give the brand a foothold in Northern Ireland alongside its south coast cluster.
