MeatLiquor heads north

15-Oct-2013 - Last updated on 16-Oct-2013 at 15:02 GMT

MEatLiquor opened its second site in Brighton last month

MeatLiquor, the fast-casual concept led by Yianni Papoutsis and Scott Collins, has confirmed it plans to open its first site in the north, in Leeds, near the Trinity shopping centre, next spring, as it works on a further two projects.

Collins told BigHospitality's sister title M&C Report that all openings outside of London will be labelled MeatLiquor going forward and that the group saw total sales of £210k last week following the opening of its new site in Brighton and that the company, which counts former Clapham House chairman David Page as a backer, was on target to turnover c£12m in its current financial year.

He also said that private equity players had been 'knocking on the door' but that it was not a funding route the business, which is debt free, was looking to go down right now.

The site in Leeds, the group’s fifth overall, will be house in a 5,000 sq.ft basement unit on the outskirts of the Leeds Trinity shopping centre. Last year, it operated a pop-up in the city at the Leelex-group owned Neon Cactus site, and Leelax founder is set to consult on the new site, which is awaiting planning and licensing approval.

Collins said: “Land Securities heard about the pop-up and gave us a call about this basement site, which doesn’t suit everyone, but we are used to working with peculiar, off-pitch sites. Ged will be helping us with the site and we would not have looked at opening in Leeds without his input."

Local food

He added that the company, which opened its second MeatLiquor in Brighton’s York Place last month, was working on two further projects that would have the 'MeatLiquor DNA' running through them but would not confirm what these would entail. However, he did confirm that that they would both be in the UK and that plans to open a late night venue in central London had been put on the backburner.

“We want to keep evolving. We have proved we can make quirky sites work so we will continue to look at further opportunities to push the business on. At Brighton we have introduced seafood into the menu and with the Leeds site we will again look to tap into the local market for the design of the site and parts of its menu.

"Despite what people have labelled us, we are not a burger concept, there is a lot more to us than that.”