Thai food chain Camile Thai Kitchen has announced that it is planning to open 15 new outlets across Ireland and the UK, and create over 300 new jobs, 220 of which will be based in Ireland.
Planned Outlet Locations
Locations in Ireland at which Camile Thai is planning to open new outlets include Dublin's Point Village and the new Frascati shopping centre in the south Dublin suburb of Blackrock as well as several other locations in Dublin, and sites in Cork, Mayo and Waterford.
Job Roles
The new jobs that Camile Thai is planning to create include roles in retail, business development, marketing, sales, and cookery.
Technology-Centric Strategy
Camile is also planning to raise €10 million as part of plans to progress with a technology-centric strategy. The chain was the first in Europe to deliver its menu by drone earlier this year and has plans to automate its kitchen operations with robotics in 2021.
"Franchise As A Service" Venture
Additionally, 2021 will see Camile push forward with its "franchise as a service" venture. Earlier this year, the chain began offering flexible franchise options for owners of businesses such as restaurants, bars and hotels with well-located but underused commercial kitchens in regional towns. The aim of the venture is to enable such businesses to easily pivot to offering Camile's delivery menu, helping them to continue to operate despite future anticipated lockdown restrictions. The first such premises recently opened in Sligo, and Camile is aiming to open five or six such outlets in the medium term.
"Rapid Growth"
Camile Thai Kitchen founder Brody Sweeny stated, "Despite an extremely difficult year for the hospitality sector, for Camile 2020 has seen rapid growth. Our suburban, delivery focussed model has proven to be pandemic proof in the last eleven months, not least in terms of revenue and sales. This has enabled us to not only push forward with our aggressive expansion plans, but also to prematurely move ahead with our main goal - our tech pivot. Our raison d'etre is delivering guilt-free, delicious takeaways, but for us, we see tech playing such an incremental role in terms of food preparation, but also UX and, of course, delivery."
© 2021 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Dave Simpson. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
