Wendy's on track to open 10 UK restaurants by 2022

US fast food chain Wendy’s is on track to have 10 UK restaurants open by the end of the year.

The burger brand returned to the UK after an almost 20-year break this summer and has since launched three restaurants in Reading, Oxford, and London’s Stratford.

In an earnings call Todd Penegor, chief executive of Wendy’s, said the chain was seeing “extremely strong sales” across all its UK restaurants.

“[Customers] are thrilled to have Wendy’s in the market, making us even more excited about our growth opportunity,” he said.

“We’re in the process of bringing additional franchise partners [in the UK] into the family in the near future. We anticipate having 10 restaurants open by the end of the year, which is incredible given we opened our first location in June.”

Wendy's ran around 10 company-operated UK restaurants in the 1990s, but shut them down after complaining of high operating costs. Now the company is planning to open hundreds of UK restaurants over the next two years.

In August the chain announced a partnership with Reef, which operates ‘dark kitchens’ worldwide, to open 700 delivery-only sites across the UK, US and Canada over the next five years.

Wendy's was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969 and is on track to grow to around 7,000 restaurants worldwide by the end of the year. It is aiming to reach around 8,500-9,000 global restaurants by the end of 2025.

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