Ten offspring on way from the Fat Buddha; In association with RBS.
Byline: By Graeme KingBAR, club and restaurant operator Utopian Leisure has revealed multi-million pound plans to open a chain of takeaways in County Durham.
The company, run by Newcastle entrepreneur Bob Senior, has recently opened a pounds 1.2m restaurant known as Fat Buddha in the Walkergate development in Durham city centre.
Now Mr Senior plans to build on the reputation being established by Fat Buddha to open up takeaway outlets in villages within a 15-mile radius of the city, all serving the same choice of pan-Asian cuisine.
These will trade under the name Little Fat Buddha and the Utopian boss hopes to open 10 sites within three years. He says Utopian will look for freehold premises, and then spend around pounds 160,000 per 1,500sq ft unit to fit them out. The business plan follows a pattern laid down by Utopian in Belfast where the first Fat Buddha restaurant opened under the leadership of the company's restaurant boss Eddie Fung, and a takeaway is operating, too, with the company currently seeking more sites.
Mr Senior said: "Fat Buddha is there to get a good reputation, then we will open it up into villages and towns within a 15-mile radius with takeaways. If we've got the best takeaways around, we believe we will gain a lot of trade.
"Once you've got the standards sorted, you bring in staff and train them. If you look at Domino's for instance, it has a reputation for doing great pizza because they have good quality control.
"It would be nice to have 10 Little Fat Buddhas over the next three years."
The Fat Buddha restaurant in Durham has attracted controversy in recent weeks after the city council's head of cultural services said it should be renamed for causing offence to Buddhists. But Mr Senior resisted the calls, saying the critics had misunderstood the Buddhist faith.
Mr Senior said the restaurant had already proved popular and he was optimistic that it would do even better business when two new hotels open in the Durham area, together with students returning to the city in October.
Utopian has recently put its Box nightclub in Newcastle on the market, but Mr Senior said it was not certain the business would be sold.
He said: "We've had a few nibbles for Box but nothing concrete at the moment. If we don't get the price we want, we will keep on, trying key after key to unlock the potential there."
Utopian's estate now features Box and the Sam Jack's bar in Newcastle, Loveshack club in Durham, Box and Fat Buddha in Belfast - as well as its takeaway offshoot - and now the second Fat Buddha, which opened last month.
The company also has its specialist dance venue division, run by Tokyo Industries in Newcastle.
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Publication: | The Journal (Newcastle, England) |
|---|---|
| Date: | Aug 20, 2007 |
| Words: | 465 |
| Previous Article: | Arguably, we should refrain from panicking; In association with RBS. |
| Next Article: | Supermarket hair salon cuts it with shopppers; In association with RBS. |
| Topics: | |