Noodle House to open 150 units

Jumeirah Group's branded restaurant division plans to open 150 outlets around the world within the next four years – and is already halfway towards meeting its goal.

Group CEO Guy Crawford, speaking to Emirates Business, said the Dubai-based hotel giant had signed 80 agreements for the Noodle House alone.

And about 30 of those are already in the construction stage, he said.

"We're well on track to reach our target of having 150 restaurants by 2012," said Crawford. "The Noodle House will be our core product. At the moment we are focused on the Gulf region but we are licensing different people around the world."

Jumeirah launched the division – called the Taste Department – two years ago to set up and licence casual dining restaurant concepts with partners worldwide. The section has taken the Noodle House, Sana Bonta and Bytes restaurants to a total of eight countries in the Gulf and Asia.

There are seven Noodle House restaurants in the UAE – including Dubai Marina, Madinat Jumeirah and Emirates Towers – and two are to open in Qatar, one in City Centre this year and the other in the Pearl in 2009.

Jumeirah recently signed 12 master licence agreements in Pakistan and issued 30 master licences in India, which will result in 42 more outlets opening by 2012. Crawford said the Noodle House, a casual dining restaurant where chefs prepare Southeast Asian dishes within minutes over an open flame in the full view of diners, is expected to grow exponentially over the coming years. Master licence agreements have been signed in the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Lebanon.

Another brand, Sana Bonta, will open a new outlet at the Dubai Outsource Zone by next year. Master licence agreements are about to be signed in two locations outside the UAE.

Sana Bonta, which means wholesome goodness in Italian, has one outlet open at the Dubai International Financial Centre.

Crawford said Jumeirah was planning to expand its Bytes chain, the company's version of a New York City deli. There are currently two Bytes outlets and three more are on the way in Dubai and a licence agreement in Bahrain is in the pipeline.

Two more restaurants – The Flaming Revolution and Rice & Spice – will be added to the Taste Department's portfolio by next month.

"About 40 to 50 per cent of our restaurants will be in the Gulf," Crawford added. "Our home is Dubai and our hub will always be the UAE and the Gulf. Our second biggest area will be Asia then we will grow in strategic locations in the Americas and Europe."