Fireaway 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 in the past three years.
Fireaway Pizza operates primarily through franchising, and publishes its own franchise recruitment page for prospective UK franchise partners. The chain has grown quickly, adding more than 100 restaurants in the past three years to reach a current estate of 160, almost entirely through standalone units rather than concessions. The Rickmansworth site is run by Dilan Patel, who already operates 10 Welcome stores in partnership with Southern Co-op across southern England, alongside a separate portfolio of Fireaway restaurants. The Rickmansworth Welcome store already carried a Subway concession before Fireaway’s arrival.
A pizza concession inside an existing Welcome store
Rather than opening a standalone restaurant, Fireaway has fitted a pizza counter into a store Patel already operates, adding to a site that already houses a Subway concession. That gives the Rickmansworth Welcome store three separate food brands trading under one roof:
- Welcome — Southern Co-op’s BFA full-member convenience franchise
- Subway — existing concession, already trading at the site
- Fireaway — new pizza concession, the subject of this launch
Neither company has published the size of the pizza counter, the investment involved, or the opening date beyond the announcement itself. Patel said Rickmansworth “felt like the perfect place to launch this new concept,” citing personal ties to the town, and called the move “an exciting next step” for a franchisee already running businesses under two separate brands.
Two genuine franchises operating under one roof
Both brands involved are franchises in their own right, not the supply-agreement symbol groups (see our guide to understanding franchising) that often get confused with franchising.
Southern Co-op’s Welcome franchise
Southern Co-op’s own site describes Welcome as “our convenience franchise business,” and Southern Co-op is a full member of the British Franchise Association. Welcome is a genuine franchise operated by Southern Co-op, distinct from the separate franchise programme run by Co-op Group.
Fireaway’s franchise model
Fireaway operates its own UK franchise recruitment route directly, rather than through a symbol group or a supply agreement. The Rickmansworth site is therefore two separate franchise agreements, run by the same franchisee, layered inside a single unit: a structure that is unusual enough in UK franchising to be worth naming plainly rather than assuming either brand is a supply arrangement.
Good to know
Southern Co-op is an independent co-operative society, not a subsidiary of Co-op Group, and its Welcome franchise is a separate proposition from the Co-op Group franchise programme. Readers wanting to compare investment levels across formats can check how much it typically costs to open a franchise in the UK.
No confirmed plans yet for further concessions
Neither Fireaway nor Southern Co-op has said whether the Rickmansworth concession will be rolled out to other Welcome stores, or whether Patel’s other nine Welcome sites are candidates for the same format. Fireaway’s growth to date has come mainly through standalone restaurants opened by fast food franchise partners, so a concession model inside an existing convenience store would mark a genuinely new route to market if it is repeated elsewhere. For now, the companies have described the move as a first test rather than a confirmed rollout strategy, and neither has set a timeline for reviewing how the format performs before deciding on further sites.
FAQ
Southern Co-op became a wholly owned subsidiary of Co-op Group in July 2026, following a member-approved transfer of engagements. The deal remains subject to Competition and Markets Authority clearance, and Southern Co-op continues to trade under its own name and operate its Welcome franchise separately in the meantime.
Yes. Fireaway grows mainly through franchising, alongside a small number of company-owned stores, and recruits franchisees directly through its own UK franchise page rather than through a symbol group or supply agreement.
