Caribbean-Inspired Restaurant Chain Pollo Tropical Eyes UK

Caribbean-Inspired Restaurant Chain Pollo Tropical Eyes UK
By Emma Eversham

Caribbean-inspired US restaurant chain Pollo Tropical is seeking franchisees with hospitality experience to help it expand into cities in the UK. Pollo Tropical could become a familiar brand on our high streets if its franchise is taken up by a large operator.

The quick service restaurant chain, based in Miami, currently owns and operates 90 restaurants across the US and serves a Caribbean inspired menu which uses fresh ‘citrus marinated’ chicken as a key ingredient in its 50-item menu.

Marc Mushkin, senior vice president of international development for Pollo Tropical, said the large influx of British tourists to its home state of Florida each year made the UK a key target for expansion.

Pollo Tropical first set up franchises outside the States in 1995 in Puerto Rico. It expanded into Ecuador in 1997, then Venezuela earlier this year with plans to extend into more of South America.

Pollo Tropical is a subsidiary of Carrols Restaurant Group Inc. the largest Burger King franchisee in the world. If efforts to expand into the UK are successful, it could become the first Caribbean chicken chain to operate here.

Caribbean-style food in the UK has long been the reserve of individual operators in the UK, but is becoming a focus for larger operators who have recognized a gap in the market for food from the region.

Las Iguanas founder Ajith Jaya-Wickrema is due to open his second Caribbean restaurant under the Turtle Bay brand, in Southampton this month following the success of its sister restaurant in Milton Keynes.