Following on from the June opening of a sit-down restaurant in Chelmsford, American fried chicken brand Popeyes is set to launch a further sit-down site in Romford on 23 July.
Popeyes’ UK operation has become a runaway success since its launch in November 2021, and its national rollout has shifted up a gear with sites confirmed for Nottingham, Gateshead, Oxford, Reading, Brighton and Ealing.
Popeyes was founded in New Orleans in 1972, and already boasts sites in Stratford, plus delivery kitchens in Bermondsey, Maida Vale, Whitechapel.
With Popeyes Stratford now being its highest-performing restaurant in the world – out of a remarkable 3,600 restaurants – since opening less than half a year ago, the brand has stepped up its expansion plans to meet rapidly growing demand in the UK.
Tom Crowley, CEO at Popeyes UK, commented, “From north to south, we’re building communities of chicken lovers across the country. We’re beyond proud to bring our world-famous Louisiana chicken to fans all over the UK, and give them a real taste of Southern US hospitality.
“It’s such an exciting time for the brand, and we have even bigger plans in the works; we’re dedicating a lot of focus currently to our rollout of drive-throughs alongside our strong pipeline of sit-down restaurants.
“Accelerating our UK growth strategy in this way enables us to provide a much-needed jobs boost to the hospitality economy across both construction and hospitality roles.
'Across these six sites, we’re expecting to provide 600 employment opportunities, and we’re already eyeing our next raft of locations with announcements due imminently.”
The UK represents the 11th new market for Popeyes across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where the chain has already opened hundreds of new sites as part of its global expansion. This year, Popeyes celebrated 50 years since its first restaurant opened in New Orleans.