Caribbean restaurant group, Turtle Bay, is set to open up to six new restaurants and create 200 new jobs, following a financing arrangement with Santander Corporate & Commercial.
The restaurant group opened its first restaurant in December 2010, in Milton Keynes and has since opened in Southampton, Nottingham and Bristol. Turtle Bay specialises in the casual Caribbean dining market, with the aim of bringing a bit of the Caribbean way of life to the UK.
Bristol-based founder and Managing Director of Turtle Bay, Ajith Jajawickrema, has great of experience in the concept dining market. He founded Las Iguanas in 1991 with one small restaurant in Bristol, which now has almost 30 restaurants around the UK.
Ajith Jayawickrema said: “I’m delighted that we’ve secured this funding with Santander, which will enable us to open up to ten new restaurants and create around 200 new jobs over the next couple of years. At Turtle Bay, we aim to capture the Caribbean island vibe by serving up exceptional, authentic dishes in an environment inspired by the love of laid-back living – it is a unique dining experience, so we hope our new locations will prove as popular as they have been in the four locations we already have. Santander has really taken time to understand our business and understand the potential of the concept, and I look forward to working with them in the future.”
Simon Whyatt, Relationship Director for Santander Corporate & Commercial, said: “The casual Caribbean dining concept works really well and is something that hasn’t really been done before. Ajith’s vision has worked incredibly well in the past, with Las Iguana’s for example, so we have complete faith that he will make a real success of this, his next venture.”
About Santander Corporate & Commercial
Provides dedicated relationship banking support to businesses with a turnover of more than £250,000 through the bank’s 35 regional corporate business centres located across the UK.
It is part of Santander UK plc, a full-service retail and commercial bank providing services to 25 million customers, with almost 1,200 branches. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Banco Santander, managed autonomously, with its own local management team.