EXCLUSIVE: Taco Bell on Their Push into the UK High Street
It has been a busy year for the US Mexican giant, who have their sights firmly set on the UK market. With more stores set to open and a new look, we went to find out more about their plans this side of the pond.
QSR: How many stores do you plan to open in the next 12 months?
Taco Bell globally have strong expansion plans for the International division. We currently operate in North America, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
In the UK, we have doubled our restaurant count in the past year, bringing our total to 6 - 3 food court locations and 3 new high street locations. Our high street locations feature an open plan kitchen and a new look asset design focused on our millennial consumer.
We’ll be looking to accelerate development further, as we continue to build our franchisee base.
QSR: What locations / cities are you looking at?
We are focused on building a nationwide presence. In the immediate future we are focused on building out and around current locations with our existing partners in Yorkshire, Essex and Lancashire, but plan to be in most major UK cities and obviously within the M25 longer term.
QSR: Why do you think now is the right time to start your expansion push in the UK?
Our decision to expand into the UK was based on the warm reception from our current fans of the brand who love our great tasting food and affordable value. Whether in our restaurants or through our social media channels, fans continue to support our brand throughout the UK. With a strong QSR market, high brand awareness and a growing Mexican category in both foodservice and retail, now is the time to bring the Taco Bell brand to life!
QSR: We’ve noticed some menu innovation of late too. What is behind this? Is it specific to the UK market? How does the UK offering differ to your US offering?
As a brand of firsts, Taco Bell US were one of the first QSR’s to offer a value menu, free refills, our own proprietary beverage (Mountain Dew Baja Blast) and a branded late night daypart with FourthMeal, not to mention more recent product innovations such as the Doritos Locos Tacos and the Waffle Taco.
In the UK, we have tried to balance a strong core menu of Taco Bell favourites, with a mix of promotional new products and innovation specific to the UK, to ensure our fans have great new products to try.
The Ultimate Burrito, with its guacamole and tomato and habanero sauce and our Fully Loaded Fries are some recent product innovations specific to the UK customer, taken from market and product insights on popular flavour combinations. The current Crispy Chicken range most recently launched took inspiration from a recent US product launch, along with a popular menu item in our Spanish market.
To help further elevate the brand, we have also introduced an open plating style presentation that highlights our made to order meals and ice-cold Sol beer at our High St locations.
We will continue to tap into our customer feedback and social listening in order to identify what our customers want and thanks to the US business have a strong pipeline of innovation to build off.
Whilst the core products remain the same, the biggest difference between the UK and US menu today is our focus on combo meals and of course our tasty seasoned fries.
QSR: What is proving your most popular menu item?
Our fans love the variety of our menu, and can’t get enough of our classic Tacos, Burritos and Quesadillas, but our best fan favourite when it comes to products though is the Crunchwrap Supreme which has our tasty beef, creamy nacho cheese sauce, crispy lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese and a crunchy tostada wrapped in a warm grilled tortilla. Most fans order off our combo menu which adds chips / nachos and a drink to your meal.
Our most popular promotional items have been our Cheesy Double Beef burrito, a traditional Taco Bell flavour combination, and the BBQ Pulled Pork Quesadilla which was a unique UK Innovation created back in 2013 .
