Bird announces five-year expansion plan

Bird Restaurants has announced an “ambitious expansion plan” with several new site launches planned for early 2021. News of the expansion closely follows the appointment of the group’s new managing director, Andrew Clover. The fried chicken and waffles chain currently has a range of sites across London, including Brixton, Westfield, Canary Wharf, Camden and Islington. It also operates sites in Manchester, Nottingham and Brighton. The chain is now hoping to expand into Cambridge, Leeds, Battersea, Waterloo and Shoreditch, with multiple locations expected later in the year. Managing director Andrew Clover said: “BIRD has all the right ingredients for significant growth and so I feel privileged to take the helm at such a crucial time. “My immediate focus has been to get under the skin of the entire brand experience and to revisit operational procedures to set our teams up to win – creating a plug-and-play ready brand if you like.” He added: “Running parallel to our organic growth strategy is our vision to massively expand our locations through franchise and commercial partnerships in the UK and overseas, which could see 100+ sites over the next five years. “This is a challenging part of the strategy where I bring a wealth of knowledge and a proven track record for delivering sustainable portfolio growth.” Bird was acquired from the original founders by the now parent company, Crown Partnership. Senior partner Charles Beer said: “We loved the BIRD brand ethos and vision for a world-class casual dining offer so we took the plunge and acquired them in August 2019, an investment now approaching £2m.” “Andrew’s track record tells you all you need to know about why we chose him to lead the brand. As a board member for global travel dining giants HMS Host UK he achieved a 7-fold performance increase for his division.” He added: “He brought his retail expertise to Stansted’s new departure terminal advising and developing the strategy to maximise the commercial opportunity whilst enhancing the guest experiences and he was instrumental in developing numerous proprietary concepts for hospitality as well as introducing Leon to the travel community and managing franchises on Starbucks, Burger King and others.”