Wagamama appoints Allan Leighton as chairman
Allan Leighton, former chief executive of Asda, is to be appointed to the chair of the Asian noodle restaurant chain Wagamama.
He will join the board of the company, which is owned by private equity firms Duke Street and Hutton Collings, this week, according to The Sunday Times.
The news comes two months after Wagamama opened a new flagship restaurant on Great Marlborough Street, London, and announced that it is to add a further 40 sites with more than 100 refurbishments over the next three years.
Wagamama currently operates 114 company-owned sites in the UK and four in the US, while there are an additional 14 franchised restaurants in Europe, the Middle East and New Zealand.
Leighton, currently chairman of the Co-op, told The Sunday Times: "We're in expansion mode. We could easily have a couple of hundred restaurants in the US - that's the scale of our ambition."
In its most recent financial results for the interim period to 1 February 2015, Wagamama achieved an 18.7% increase in turnover to £45.7m for Q3 2015 (9.9% increase like-for-like).
Originally launched in 1992 by restaurateur Alan Yau, Wagamama means "naughty child" in Japanese.
Wagamama to open 40 new restaurants and revamp 100 sites >>
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