Wildwood owner considers rebranding underperforming sites

Tasty, the owner of restaurant chains Wildwood and dim t, is considering rebranding some of its underperforming sites.

Aimed at a broad market, Wildwood currently serves its ‘Pizza, Pasta, Grill’ menu at 46 restaurants, while two branded sites have remained closed since the Pandemic.

Pan-Asian restaurant dim t operates from six sites, including one in Loughton which was converted from a Wildwood site and relaunched in November 2022. Tasty say that the brand has performed well in recent years due to an increase in demand for Asian food and takeaways.

The group said that given the success of its Loughton rebrand, it will look at opportunities to grow the dim t brand within its own estate.

Tasty said it is considering disposing of poorer performing sites, as some of its leases have termination provisions this year allowing the group to either renegotiate terms or surrender the lease.

A process to sell the two closed Wildwood units is underway, while some sites are expected to see conversion into dim t restaurants.

The group said it would only consider expanding once the economy and energy market stabilise.

Keith Lassman, chairman of Tasty, said: “We expect our customers to continue to enjoy eating out and relish the social occasion at Wildwood and dim t but we will continue to focus on managing our cost base and increasing efficiencies within the business. We are living in very unpredictable times, both politically and economically, and these no doubt will continue to be factors in the performance of the group for the coming year.”