Cau targets 16 sites by end of 2015

Argentine restaurant brand Cau is set to reach up to 16 sites by the end of 2015.

The company, which is owned by the same shareholders that own Gaucho and was launched by Gaucho founders Zeev and Patsy Godik, currently has six UK sites and a seventh in Holland.

It is on site on two more in Wimbledon and Henley on Thames, both of which are due to open this year.

Next year could see up to nine new openings, according to director Graham Hall.

Among those will be a new Liverpool site on the ground floor of a development that will also house a Tune hotel on Castle Street. This will be the first of Cau's sites in the North West, although others are expected to follow next year.

The brand is also looking at properties in Bath as it strengthens its presence in the West, having already opened a site in Bristol. It also has planning permission to open a site in Reading.

Hall said he was upbeat about the prospects for the business, which is predicted to generate turnover of £12m this calendar year. "We feel the marketplace is there and we can keep growing. There is no reason why this can't be a 30-40 site business," he said.

Godik, who was named Restaurateur of the Year - Group at the 2012 Cateys, opened his first Gaucho Grill in London in 1994.

The company's ownership structure has changed several times, including a spell being listed on the stock market before Godik took it private again in 2002. But the company underwent a 2010 management buy-out backed by Intermediate Capital Group, and has expanded to 16 restaurants in London, Manchester and Leeds, as well as one each in Dubai and Buenos Aires.

Sister brand Cau, which is operated as a separate business, was founded in 2011.