Who is chopstix

Skip to main content. Not long after they add Chinese food to their offer - and the beginnings of a brand begin to take shape.

Scraping together the funds from friends and family, the founders secure a prime location on Oxford Street. Through a clause in the rental agreement they are told they can't sell Pizza in their new restaurant. Having opened a number of successful sites in London, it was the famed restaurateur Philip Kaye, while taking notes on Chopstix, who advised Sam and Menashe to branch out of London.

The first sites out of London are opened in Norwich and Leicester. Both sites are licensed out to be run by local operators. The founders begin their own procurement of ingredients through Poland to establish strong commercials in the brand.

More sites are opened including Bluewater and Lakeside shopping centres. South Kensington, Wood Green and Woking open as the brand begins to build awareness in the capital. Attention moves to Scotland and we open in various locations including Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Livingston and Dundee. An in-house build team is created so all store builds can be managed consistently to the same standard. Store number 20 opens, Manchester Piccadilly and the founders invest in a warehouse and supply chain to control and lower capital expenditure.

A brand new extraction system is created enabling the brand to open in smaller spaces. Reading, Swindon and Bridgend open. Sam and Menashe just can't stop finding locations to share the noodles, and by the end of the year the brand sits at 30 stores!

Chopstix employs an external marketing agency to help create brand credentials and identity. The 1st franchised site is opened with Applegreen at their Galway services in Ireland. Chopstix goes international!

Plus the logo gets a refresh and the now iconic 'red chopsticks' are introduced. The brand introduced IQF coated chicken in the business, eliminating the use of raw chicken and engages with Bidfood as a distribution partner.

Do you have a standalone test kitchen or do you use the kitchens within the branches to test new dishes? New product development is very important, and we are constantly reviewing how we can bring new dishes to the customer without compromising on service speed or quality. To that end, we have recently engaged the services of a new logistics company, Bidfood, to assist us with this process.

Chopstix now operates 75 stores in the UK. What role does equipment have to play in achieving product consistency across so many sites? Our kitchen equipment underpins our offer, so it is vitally important, and something that we emphasise with our franchise partners as well. Our two corporate partners, Welcome Break and Applegreen, use exactly the same equipment as own-company-managed stores. Has this led to any significant changes in kitchen set-up?

We are always learning as we open new stores and although our kitchen model retains its core attributes we have refined and adapted it over the years. With technology becoming more prevalent we know the next four years will almost definitely lead to changes in the way we approach our kitchens.

How do you see your kitchens evolving in ? We are looking at steam innovation and how this cooking method could be adapted in an NPD environment. You are in a lot of different locations now, which must present certain operational challenges. How does designing and running a kitchen in a shopping centre compare to, say, designing and running a kitchen in a motorway services? The basis is the same — efficient use of the space provided to allow our core principles of faster, fresher, high quality food to be served to our customer.

It certainly helps to know we have the expertise of our in-house design and install team on every single project we undertake. We operate the Blanco self-extraction unit in a number of our stores, allowing us to extract the cooking smells without the need for a standard extraction and filter system.

Chopstix snaps up rival chain after waiting for the right deal to emerge. Yangtze was formed in and employs 70 staff across nine premium, quick-service Chinese restaurants that it operates in the UK and Ireland. As a result of the acquisition, the Chopstix Group is now active within 35 shopping and retail hubs across the country.

Senior management reshuffle signals start of ambitious market push into new territories. Chopstix has reshuffled the pack as it looks to execute an ambitious expansion plan in Max Hilton Jenvey, who joined as COO three years ago when the group was a third of the size it is now, has taken on the newly-created post of global head of franchise.

With UK expansion plans securely in place for the next 18 months, the brand is turning its attention overseas and has appointed Jenvey to oversee the development of an international franchise network. As we look to introduce the brand overseas, there is no one better qualified than Max to spearhead our ambitious strategy.

Over the course of the past year the company has been actively working on setting out its international strategy and claims to have already generated an enormous amount of interest from international operators. Given the undoubted global appeal of oriental food, we hope to be announcing new relationships with international partners for Chopstix in the near future.

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