On Monday 3 November, the 50th Bill’s opened in Berkhamsted, marking a significant milestone for the business. Exactly 52 weeks earlier, the 26th restaurant had opened in Salisbury – a doubling in size in just one year.
In this time, Bill’s has welcomed just shy of 1,000 new team members to the business.
Included in the 25 sites opened this year are the first sites in the north of England – in Manchester, Liverpool and York, as well as the Midlands – in Nottingham, Worcester and Leamington Spa. Restaurants in the Bill’s estate now stretch for 300 miles, from Exeter in the south west, to York in the north.
Challenges along the way
Bill’s commented:
“The journey to 50 sites hasn’t always been easy, and there have been some challenging points along the way. But we have persevered with the help of our very talented teams to create some fantastic restaurants. From finding new team members, to securing props for the fit-out of our sites, we’ve risen to every challenge along the way in typical Bill’s fashion.
“We will soon be releasing our financial results for the year ending July 2014, and these show continuing strong LFL growth in the estate, in addition to the growth achieved from new openings.”
Lots of hard work
“I never dreamt we would one day be announcing the opening of our 50th Bill’s!” said Bill Collison, founder of Bill’s. “The fact that we are is down to a strong identity and lots of hard work from a very dedicated team, by which I mean everyone who works for Bill’s. Bringing Roberto Moretti and Scott Macdonald on board as our co-managing directors has been amazing for us. Two driven and talented people steering us forwards, who are always approachable from the top to the bottom of the business.”
The expansion continues
2015 should see Bill’s first forays into Scotland, and the site pipeline for the first half of 2015 is already looking very strong.