Wagamama Set To Conquer The World

The Pan-Asian casual dining chain restaurant, Wagamama has seen a 19% upsurge in its 2016 annual results boasting a reported turnover of £228.1m compared to £191.7m in 2015. As the company’s turnover and profit rise steadily, Wagamama has been upgrading its estate under the Kaizen project dedicated to improving all aspects of operations. The group currently operates 158 restaurants in 18 countries, including the US, with restaurants in Boston and New York City and new European franchise markets securing steady growth of like-for-like sales in the UK by 13.1% and 11.3% for the US.

Wagamama’s CEO, David Campbell, says: “I’m delighted to report these fantastic results, which reflects the hard work delivered by the team throughout the past year to ensure our brand, UK estate upgrade, and continued international expansion is a great success.”

“Having established a strong UK brand, which has now outperformed the UK restaurant market for 112 consecutive weeks, we are excited to be moving further down a path to create an iconic international restaurant brand. The US is a significant opportunity for us and we have already initiated our growth strategy with the acquisition of two leases in New York. We have also further bolstered our European footprint by adding new European franchise markets.

“We have great people throughout the business and a talented executive team in place to continue to make this business a success. We are confident that with our market leading position, well invested portfolio and stable and resilient business model we are well positioned for future growth.” Wagamama’s founder, Alan Yau, opened the group’s first UK’s original Japanese-inspired restaurant in Bloomsbury in 1992 and in 1997 sold it to Neill and Graphite Capital who contributed to the brand’s spectacular growth.