A growth in demand for restaurant delivery services during the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed the South Asian street food chain, Chaiiwala, towards plans to open an additional 52 stores per year for the next three years which would create 3,600 jobs by 2023, reports the Leicester-based franchise.
Chaiiwala says it currently operates 32 stores across the country, employing 800 staff and is planning expansion towards bigger, more accessible restaurants in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Manchester, Northampton, Reading, Sheffield and Southampton, with 40 locations due to open before the end of the year.
Nil Naik
Nil Naik, franchise director of Chaiiwala, said that the street food concept was growing in popularity: “As a South Asian street food provider with Western fusion, our food and drink offering resonates well with desi and ethnic demographic customers and our expansion plans centre around our aim to reach a wider audience. By opening bigger stores in new locations, we are confident that the brand will achieve a bigger reach and help more customers discover what we think is the best chaii in the UK.
“Since the pandemic we have increased our delivery options across all third-party platforms such as Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat, and this has increased our takeaway sales by 10 per cent – with take out now accounting for more than 80 per cent of our sales. We could not have achieved this success without our franchise growth partners who live and breathe the brand.”
Commenting on international expansion, Naik said: “The first Chaiiwala locations will open in Canada in early 2021 and we have plans to expand in South Africa, Europe, and the Gulf. In total we have sold 189 locations in total and will open 52 stores per year over the next three years, employing an additional 1,200 people per year until 2023.”
www.chaiiwala.co.uk