Byron targets wider market with 'burger diversity' menu launch

The group has closed 20 sites since January, and is attempting to build ‘a new Byron’, according to CEO Simon Cope.

The menu is designed to ‘cater for the UK’s increasingly diverse dining scene’, and has been designed to attract more custom to the restaurant group, which previously offered a limited selection of dishes for vegans and vegetarians.

The new menu, launching today, will see 14 new additions to the menus across the brand’s 55 restaurants.

New burgers include a vegan option, comprising a beetroot and falafel patty, smashed avocado, tomato, pickled red onions, and lime-dressed rainbow slaw. New vegetarian burgers on the menu include the ‘jack stack’, made with a bean patty, pulled barbecued jackfruit, guacamole and slaw.

The group has also added a ‘flexitarian’ burger, made with 70% beef and 30% mushrooms, targeting diners who want to eat less meat, but are not vegetarians.

For meat eaters, new burgers include US-inspired braised brisket topped burger; and the Reuben, which comes with molten cheese sauce on the side.

The group’s signature burgers remain on the menu.

In January, creditors at the burger chain voted in favour of a Company Voluntary Agreement (CVA) that would see the closure of up to 20 sites. Some 99% of creditors voted in favour of the rescue plans at a meeting on 1 January.

Byron CEO Simon Cope said in a statement that he was confident ‘a new Byron can begin to take shape’ with a focus on a smaller and more ‘efficient’ portfolio.

At the time of the CVA, the group operated 70 sites, but the portfolio has since shrunk to 55, with closures including sites in Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester and London’s Spitalfields.

The CVA also saw Byron’s owner Hutton Collins sell half of its holding to investor Three Hills Capital Partners, making it the majority shareholder.