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Growth-hungry food chain bound for the North East

A GROWTH-HUNGRY national restaurant chain has launched a new expansion programme, which will see the firm drive into the North East, taking annual revenues of £50m.

Cloverleaf, which has its headquarters in Blackburn, Lancashire, is set to double its number of outlets in the next five years and will create a string of new restaurants and bring employment to Durham, Sunderland and Cramlington.

The group currently employs 500 staff and each new site established in the region is reported to create up to 50 new posts.

Finance director James Thornton said: “The idea is to open three or four sites a year and over the next five years get to 25.”

The firm, established by former Whitbread bosses John Winder and Gary Douglas in 2004 with backing from three individual investors, has secured funding from Lloyds Banking Group’s corporate markets team in Manchester to finance its growth plans in the North East.

Cloverleaf’s turnover for the 12 months to March 31 was £17.3m and is expected to top £20m mark by the end of this year.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .