Leon plans 12 sites as it eyes regional expansion
Healthy fast food chain Leon has announced its intention to open 12 new sites, expanding the brand beyond London.
It will open a restaurant in Birmingham's New Street station in September, with more planned for Bristol, Leeds, Cambridge and Oxford.
Co-founder John Vincent told The Telegraph the Birmingham site would cost £560,000 to launch.
"The Birmingham restaurant will be a major flagship site," he added. "We'd also like to open in Bristol, Leeds, Cambridge and Oxford. We get lots of emails and tweets telling us to open in these places, which makes us confident they will be popular."
He said the expansion, which would increase Leon's stable from 23 to 33 by the end of the year, was expected to drive a 50% increase in profit.
It saw revenue from all Leon sites rise by nearly 58% to £24.9m for the year to 28 December 2014, as it recorded a pre-tax profit of just under £910,000, up from a loss of nearly £710,000 in the previous year.
Vincent said: "All the restaurants we opened recently are performing extraordinarily well. Tottenham Court Walk, Kingsway, Victoria and Farringdon are all ahead of budget.
"This is a turning point for the business. I've been looking at a lot of US competitors and brands in the UK. They either stay at 10 sites and eventually disappear or they go from 10 to 200. It's like going to secondary school. This is our 11+."
Leon co-founders receive MBEs in Queen's Birthday Honours >>
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