Nando's opening 14 new restaurants in UK as part of big expansion

Nando's has confirmed plans to add 14 new restaurants to its 2024 UK expansion. The popular peri-peri chicken chain's expansion follows a successful period where the company opened 17 restaurants in the year to February 2024.

11 of these have been in the UK and Ireland. A full list of the eight Nando's stores that opened in the last financial year includes Edinburgh, Newcastle, Doncaster, Taplow, Bognor, Watford, Northampton and also Belfast.

Nando's Group Chief Executive Rob Papps highlighted the company's strong performance despite ongoing challenges. "The 2024 financial year saw Nando's deliver a good sales performance and a return to pre-pandemic levels of operating profit driven by robust consumer demand for our flame-grilled peri-peri chicken supported by our strong brand and customer proposition," he said.

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Nando's operates restaurants in the Mailbox and Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham as well as along New Street and Broad Street too. He noted that "despite the improved sales performance, ongoing cost pressure with energy, labour and food remained very challenging". Nando's announced sales had lifted over the past year following “strong customer demand”, surpassing pre-pandemic levels .

Full accounts for the latest financial year also show the business cut its losses despite a “challenging” cost environment. Papps said the economic backdrop remains “uncertain” but it is pushing forward with more investment to drive growth.

This will include opening a raft of new restaurants over the current financial year, including 14 in the UK. But it is yet to be revealed where the next six sites will be opened. In the financial year to February 2024, the hospitality chain opened 17 restaurants, 11 of them in the UK and Ireland.

Nando’s said the latest growth plans come after a positive first quarter of its 2024-25 financial year, where it was “extremely encouraged by customer demand”.