Hungry Horse brand 'could grow to 500 sites'

Chief executive Rooney Anand told M&C Report​ that the group had a further 114 site in the pipeline for the c200-string brand, and that he was “comfortable” with an estate of 300 Hungry Horse, but “wouldn’t rule out” pushing on to the 500 mark.

The company will open around 25 sites under the brand in its current financial year, around one a fortnight.

He said: “It’s a strong growth brand, but at the same time it is competing for growth capital with several other formats. What it has done is prove its worth across a number of different environment and several variants, whether that is retail parks, new builds or traditional locations.

“We also opened our first leashold site under the model this year, which also opens another route for the brand.”

During the year to 28 April, the brand increased the share of all covers sold through offers and improved its “centrepiece” two for £8.49 offer to all day, every day.

The brand’s ‘Hungry for Feedback’ guest satisfaction programme had over 70,000 customer responses in the year delivering a net promoter score (NPS) of 59.6% and 40,000 positive individual employee comments.