Healthy fast food chain Freshly Chopped has today announced the opening of two new stores in Ireland and the UK.
The new outlets will be in the newly opened forecourt service statiion at Junction 14 in Monasterevin in Co Kildare and the UK city of Leicester.
The company said that each store will create 10 new jobs.
Freshly Chopped's new outlet in Junction 14 is the third franchise outlet taken by The Lidon Group.
Its new outlet in Leicester will be the only food offering in a new forecourt opened by Joe Hockenhall and his son Peter of Hockenhall Garages.
This is the first franchise outlet for Freshly Chopped in the UK and follows the successful opening of a company owned Freshly Chopped in Manchester last year.
The outlet will open alongside Irish brand Insomnia Coffee Company.
Brian Lee, co-founder and managing director of Chopped, said that when Freshly Chopped was set up in 2012, its mission was to make it as easy as possible for people to eat healthily.
He said it was encouraging that in spite of all that is happening the company is continuing on this mission.
"There's no doubt it's been a challenging few months for everyone but these two new outlets represent a belief that in a post-Covid world, people will want fresh, healthy food on the go even more," Mr Lee said.
He also said the company believes there is still massive potential for growth in the UK.
"With thousands of motorists passing each day our new outlet in Leicester will act as a shop window for more franchisees in the UK to get to know our offering better," he said.
"In spite of Covid and the looming shadow of Brexit, we're looking forward to Freshly Chopped in Leicester proving to be a successful case study to help the brand expand across England, Scotland and Wales," he added.
