Jimmy's World Grill & Bar to expand to 20 sites by 2014
The world buffet restaurant group, owned by East and West Leisure Group and run by Amrik Uppal and Kuldip Singh, has expanded rapidly so far this year, opening five new restaurants since opening its second site in Derby in January.
Restaurants in Peterborough and Wimbledon opened in March, followed by Staines and Bath in May.
Its first London site, a 400-cover restaurant that will become its flagship branch, opened at the O2 last week and the group is planning to open three more – in Newcastle, Watford and Wembley – by the end of 2012.
Training hub
The restaurant group, which currently employs 450 people across its estate, has also just completed a £1m central distribution ‘hub’ in Solihull, designed to be its head office, a training centre, warehouse and laundry.
Uppal said the new facility,which will see 20 chefs train 60 employees and apprentices there every three months, would help bring consistency across the brand.
“This is an opportunity for all people to learn a skill from scratch from the best in the industry and be confident to go into a kitchen with the required skills before they really start to get real life experience," he said.
"Our kitchens will be more efficient, which will ultimately result in the customer experience being more enjoyable. We are also extremely particular that the flavour of a dish experienced in our Bath restaurant is the same in our O2 Arena site in London. The Central Distribution Hub allows us to do this by centralising marination, flavours and recipes as well as cut costs considerably.”
The new hub, where some food preparation such as marination will take place, will help the group save 30 per cent on its food costs and three large laundry drums installed to clean napkins and staff uniforms, will shave £75,000 off its annual laundry bill.
Uppal and Singh, who between them have built Indian restaurant brands such as Shimla Pinks, Pickle Johns and Killermont Polo Club, opened their first Jimmy's World Grill & Bar, an all-you-can-eat world cuisine concept in Luton in 2011.
