Taco Bell is targeting 29 September 2026 for its first restaurant in Ashford, Kent, at the new Waterbrook Park development in Sevington. The site sits alongside a third Ashford KFC on the same retail park, part of a wider out-of-town scheme that has also brought Aldi and a David Lloyd club to the town.
The new Taco Bell unit sits off the roundabout on Waterbrook Avenue, opposite the recently opened Aldi, and has been under construction since March 2026. The opening was originally pencilled in for the summer, before supplier timelines pushed it back. Kent Online reported on 23 August 2026 that Taco Bell was “targeting an opening date of September 29”, while cautioning that the date “remains subject to final approvals and may change”.
Waterbrook Park itself, in Sevington on the southern edge of Ashford, has been built out in phases over the past year, with the discount supermarket and a leisure club among the first tenants to trade.
A new access road for two chains at once
Waterbrook Park’s developers have built a dedicated access road and shared car park to serve both the new Taco Bell and a neighbouring KFC, Ashford’s third. The KFC restaurant has already opened on the same plot, a few weeks ahead of Taco Bell, giving the two quick-service chains a joint fit-out and a shared catchment rather than two separate approaches off the same road.
Neither the floor area nor the number of jobs the Taco Bell restaurant will create has been published, and the identity of the franchisee running the site has not been disclosed, which no UK register would record either, as what a franchise is explains. This will be Ashford’s first Taco Bell restaurant, giving the town access to the brand’s menu for the first time.
“We’re currently targeting an opening date of September 29, although this remains subject to final approvals and may change.” Published 23 August 2026, updated 26 August 2026.
Part of a wider UK rollout backed by franchisee funding
Ashford becomes the latest stop in Taco Bell’s expansion across England, which has already reached other Kent sites this year, including a unit at Cromwell Services on the A1. Insider Media has reported that HSBC UK is backing part of the chain’s UK franchisee rollout, though the Ashford unit’s own financing and operator have not been named. Taco Bell operates in the UK through franchise partners, in line with the model it runs internationally.
Good to know
Taco Bell’s own franchisor has confirmed the Ashford date is provisional and “subject to final approvals”. A confirmed opening date for a UK restaurant is not the same as a published franchise offer: there is no statutory pre-contract disclosure requirement for franchising in the UK, and franchisee terms are agreed directly with the brand rather than through any public register.
What to watch next in Ashford and beyond
Waterbrook Park’s own timeline still has scope to move, given the brand’s own caveat over final approvals. A confirmation closer to the date, or a further delay, would follow the same pattern as the site’s earlier summer-to-autumn slip. Beyond Ashford, Taco Bell has signalled further English sites in its pipeline, with Carlisle in Cumbria reported as a “late September 2026” target still awaiting a firm day.
The chain’s continued reliance on out-of-town retail parks, rather than high street units, mirrors the pattern of its Ashford opening: a new-build shell, a shared access road with another quick-service brand, and a car park designed around drive-to rather than walk-in trade, the format most of the fast food franchises recruiting in the UK now favour.
