{"id":1827002,"date":"2026-10-13T17:17:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/news\/chick-fil-a-hamilton-first-scottish-restaurant\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T17:04:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T15:04:21","slug":"chick-fil-a-hamilton-first-scottish-restaurant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/news\/chick-fil-a-hamilton-first-scottish-restaurant\/","title":{"rendered":"Chick-fil-A sets 29 October opening for first Scottish restaurant"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Chick-fil-A will open its first restaurant in Scotland on Thursday 29 October, at Hamilton Palace Grounds Retail Park in South Lanarkshire. It will also be the US chain&#8217;s first UK drive-thru, built in a former KFC drive-thru unit. The company says the restaurant will create around 100 full and part-time jobs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-dots\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Glasgow Times reported the opening date as <strong>13 October 2026<\/strong>. <strong>Chick-fil-A<\/strong> already trades in Liverpool, Kingston, Leeds and Northern Ireland, according to the Foodservice Equipment Journal. The Hamilton site is Unit B of the retail park, east of the town centre. The company says it plans to invest more than $100 million in the UK over the next decade, capital it is committing itself rather than raising from operators, as happens across the <a href=\"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/our-franchises\/fast-food\/\">fast food brands recruiting UK partners<\/a>. When it announced its UK plans in 2024, it put the commitment at more than <strong>\u00a382 million<\/strong> over ten years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-primary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-1\">A former KFC unit refitted for the drive-thru<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Planning permission granted earlier this year covers a rear extension, new plant equipment, changes to the drive-thru lane and a full exterior refurbishment of the old KFC building. Inside there will be room for <strong>66 to 68<\/strong> diners, with digital menu boards and outdoor seating. In the drive-thru, staff will take orders face-to-face on handheld tablets rather than only through a speaker. The plans also add new cladding, canopies and Chick-fil-A branding, move the accessible parking and add cycle and motorcycle spaces, according to the Foodservice Equipment Journal. Signs went up on the building last month as the conversion work progressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Customers will be able to eat in, order takeaway or use the drive-thru. The restaurant will open from 10am to 10pm, Monday to Saturday, and will close on Sundays, a tradition the chain traces back to its founder, Truett Cathy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-primary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-2\">The first UK test of the drive-thru format<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Drive-thru is central to many US quick-service brands, and Hamilton is where Chick-fil-A will first use the format in the UK. <strong>Joanna Symonds<\/strong>, head of UK operations at Chick-fil-A, said: &#8220;Opening our first drive-thru in the UK and our first restaurant in Scotland marks an important step forward for Chick-fil-A.&#8221; She added that the drive-thru &#8220;extends our signature hospitality into a new service channel&#8221;. The restaurant will also take part in Chick-fil-A Shared Table, a programme that passes surplus food to local organisations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-primary-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-3\">Jobs and the chicken market in Scotland<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The job figures differ slightly by source. The company told the Glasgow Times the restaurant would create around <strong>100<\/strong> roles, while planning documents reported by the Foodservice Equipment Journal pointed to about <strong>90<\/strong>. Chick-fil-A first announced its UK expansion in 2024, and the trade press reports that its UK restaurants serve chicken sourced in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Foodservice Equipment Journal added that the wider UK programme is expected to create about <strong>400<\/strong> jobs across the chain&#8217;s first UK sites. Neither report sets out how the UK restaurants are owned or run. The Hamilton opening brings another chicken brand into a Scottish market where KFC trades from <strong>58<\/strong> restaurants. On the same day, KFC said it had rolled out its new Kwench drinks range to every one of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chick-fil-A will open its first restaurant in Scotland on Thursday 29 October, at Hamilton Palace Grounds Retail Park in South Lanarkshire. It will also be the US chain&#8217;s first UK drive-thru, built in a former KFC drive-thru unit. The company says the restaurant will create around 100 full and part-time jobs. The Glasgow Times reported [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":994,"featured_media":1819822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_titles_title":"Chick-fil-A sets 29 October date for first Scottish site","_seopress_titles_desc":"Chick-fil-A will open its first Scottish restaurant and first UK drive-thru on 29 October in Hamilton, in a former KFC unit, creating around 100 jobs.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"content-type":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[801,3583],"tags":[],"type-de-post":[2066],"class_list":["post-1827002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entrepreneur-stories","category-entrepreneurship","type-de-post-articles-actualite"],"acf":[],"permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/994"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1827002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1827026,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827002\/revisions\/1827026"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1819822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1827002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1827002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1827002"},{"taxonomy":"type-de-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lexpress-franchise.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/type-de-post?post=1827002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}