Wendy's cooks up plan for 400 UK restaurants

US burger brand Wendy’s is aiming to open up to 400 restaurants in the UK as part of a wider European expansion.

The chain, which is famous for its square burgers, returned to the UK in 2021 after a 20-year break and has since grown to 37 restaurants, 12 of which are company owned.

On a call with investors this week, the company leaders were questioned why the brand still lagged behind rival US burger chains in terms of site numbers in the UK.

Gunther Plosch, chief financial officer at Wendy’s, said the group was aiming to grow to 45-50 UK restaurants by the end of the year.

“We’re building company restaurants and obviously we’ve signed up several franchise partners who are very excited,” said Plosch.

“We’ve always said the UK is a key strategic market for us as kind of the beach head for the rest of Europe.

“We absolutely expect that over time [the UK] should yield 400 restaurants for us. We’ll see how long that takes us, but we believe that’s our fair share in that market.”

Plosch added that Wendy’s was continuing to explore further European expansion, including in Ireland and Spain.

Kirk Tanner, president and chief executive officer of Wendy’s, said: “We continue to work across Europe right now, so we do think that is a significant opportunity for us.”

Wendy’s was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1969 and has more than 6,000 US restaurants.

The chain, famous for its square burgers, is set to create over 400 jobs as part of its expansion across the UK this year.

New restaurants are due to launch in Liverpool, Middlesbrough, Sheffield, London, Southend-on-Sea, Colchester, Cambridge and Newcastle.