Popeyes UK to open six more sites

Popeye’s UK, which first launched in November 2021 with “runaway success”, has announced plans to speed up its national rollout with six new sites confirmed across the country in Nottingham, Gateshead, Oxford, Reading, Brighton, and Ealing. 

Popeyes was founded in New Orleans in 1972, and currently has sites in Stratford, as well as delivery kitchens in Bermondsey, Maida Vale, and Whitechapel. Another sit-down restaurant recently launched on 11 June in Chelmsford and another branch is due to open in Romford in July. 

Popeyes Stratford has reportedly become the highest-performing Popeyes venue in the world (out of 3,600 restaurants) since opening, which has prompted the brand to “step up their expansion plans to meet rapidly growing demands in the UK”.  

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 also celebrated 50 years since its first restaurant opened in New Orleans.

Tom Crowley, CEO at Popeyes UK, said: “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.”

He added: “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.”