The new McDonald's? Irish healthy fast food chain Chopped launches in Cyprus
The company said it is the first step in a wider rollout across Europe.
IRISH SALAD CHAIN Freshly Chopped has just signed a “six-figure deal” to launch in Cyprus as it begins its expansion across Europe.
In a statement released this morning, the company said that two stores will be opened during the initial phase of the Cypriot rollout. It said it is the first step in a European rollout as it looks to emulate McDonald’s.
The first store will be in the capital of Nicosia, close to a major business district. It will open in early 2018. The second branch will be in a restaurant in Larnaca.
The firm said that this will be before Freshly Chopped “continues its rollout across the island” of Cyrpus.
Chopped has signed a franchise agreement with Karen Polyviou, who runs a local family-owned business.
It is intended that Polyviou will take on a master agreement for Cyprus and Greece by 2019.
The company said its Cypriot outlets “will take on board local culinary tastes and will adjust the menu to include locally sourced ingredients”.
The new outlets in Cyprus will join the 30 existing Chopped outlets across the island of Ireland.
‘As big as McDonald’s’
Chopped co-founder and managing director Brian Lee said that the firm’s new locations “will serve a wide variety of customers from commercial and retail workers to the thousands of tourists who flock to Cyprus’ beautiful shores every year”.
He said that the company’s first outlet in Cyprus marks “a significant step in our journey, but this is still just the beginning”.
“Our ultimate dream is to be as big as McDonald’s, with a Freshly Chopped on every street corner across the globe,” Lee said.
“We’re hoping to see this happen sooner rather than later and we’re in advanced talks to see Freshly Chopped outlets opening in even more countries across the world.”
Set up by Lee and Andy Chen in 2012, Chopped has spread rapidly across Ireland.
The most recent accounts for the business show that it made a profit of almost half a million euro in 2016, more than double what it took in the year before.
The firm is also plotting a move to break into the UK market.
