A KFC drive-thru opened at Hazledine Park in Shrewsbury on 14 September 2026, the 50th restaurant run by Gastronomy, the Shrewsbury-based franchise partner that opened its first KFC in Aberystwyth in 2007. The milestone lands a year into a development deal that commits the company to more than 100 restaurants by 2030.
Gastronomy ran 44 KFC restaurants when it signed that agreement in September 2025, covering the North West, the East and West Midlands, Shropshire and Wales. The plan adds more than 50 restaurants over five years, a mix of drive-thrus and full-service sites with parking, with backing from HSBC. Twelve months on, the Shrewsbury opening takes the count to 50, and it lands in the town where the company is based. It is also the second national brand to open at the scheme this month, after Starbucks. Multi-site development deals of this kind are how most of the fast food franchises recruiting in the UK expand their estates.
A drive-thru on a former pitch and putt site
Hazledine Park occupies a former pitch and putt course between Oteley Road and Hazledine Way, near Shrewsbury Town’s stadium, on the south side of the town. Morris Property built the scheme for Shropshire Council, which owns the land, and completed it at the start of September. It runs to three buildings and seven commercial units, with 100 shared parking spaces reached from Oteley Road. Starbucks opened there on 4 September, the tanning chain Indigo Sun has signed, and four of the remaining units are under offer. Roger Evans, cabinet member for finance at Shropshire Council, said the scheme was commissioned “to serve the needs of the growing community on the south side of Shrewsbury”.
From one restaurant in Aberystwyth to 50
Gastronomy opened its first KFC in Aberystwyth in 2007 and has grown into one of the brand’s larger regional operators. The agreement it signed in September 2025 set a target of more than 100 restaurants by 2030, which would more than double the estate it held at the time, and its territory covers both England and Wales. Territory rights on that scale are among the terms our guide to franchise agreements in the UK sets out. Acky Khan, chief executive of Gastronomy, said: “In all my 30 years with the brand, I’ve never been more excited to grow and invest in KFC.” The openings are split between drive-thrus and full-service restaurants with parking, the two formats KFC has pushed hardest in its own UK plans and the formats most restaurant franchises recruiting in the UK build around.
Franchise partners run about 95% of KFC’s UK estate
KFC is one of the most heavily franchised networks trading in the UK, and a clear illustration of how franchising works in the UK. Its own development pages put the split at about 95% of restaurants run by franchise partners and 5% by KFC GB Ltd. In May 2025 the company announced £1.49 billion of investment in the UK and Ireland over five years, including £466 million towards 500 new restaurants over ten years, upgrades to more than 200 existing sites and more than 7,000 jobs. It reported 27 franchise partners and 33,500 people working across the network at that point. Gastronomy is one of those 27.
Good to know
KFC publishes its franchise criteria on its own development pages: £5 million of assets, £2 million of it liquid, previous hospitality and food and beverage operating knowledge, and growth ambitions across the UK and Ireland. The route is an enquiry to the brand, and the openings go to operators who already run restaurants at scale.
What comes next at Hazledine Park
Four of the seven units at Hazledine Park are under offer and the rest are being marketed, so the final make-up of the scheme is not settled. For Gastronomy, the Shrewsbury drive-thru marks the halfway point of a target that runs to 2030, with the balance of the openings due across the North West, the Midlands and Wales. KFC’s published restaurant count for the UK and Ireland is the figure that will show whether the wider £466 million programme keeps pace with the ten-year schedule. Shropshire Council holds the site as landlord, and the rental income from the seven units sits on its books. Operators weighing a site of their own can compare franchise opportunities across the UK.
