North-western restaurateur, Paul Heathcote, is opening three new restaurants and refurbishing his existing estate as part of a £3m expansion plan.
The restaurants will all open under the umbrella of Heathcotes, taking the estate up to 15 restaurants. The first new restaurant – an Olive Press Pizzeria Bar and Grill in Clitheroe – has just opened, with another Olive Press in Cheadle Hulme to open by the end of 2007. Grado, serving "new wave Spanish food", will open in Manchester Piccadilly in November.
Although they will be run by the same company, "the restaurants will effectively be split into the Olive Press restaurants, and the remaining restaurants, including Grado, will be one-offs and will come under the Heathcotes Collection banner" said Heathcote. Grado was something that came about because "I felt parts of Manchester were saturated with similar kinds of restaurants, mainly Italian restaurants and large middle-of-the-road brasserie-style restaurants. I wanted to create a smarter Spanish restaurant."
All of the company's current restaurants are also due to be refurbished by the end of 2008.
Heathcote said, "We have expanded gradually over the last 16 years since I opened my first restaurant in Longridge. However the time is ripe to step things up a gear and I have big ambitions for the company."