The Indian café brand, which operates more than 100 stores in the UK, as well as 20 in Canada and some in the Middle East, will open two new sites in the city - a site in the INTU Victoria Centre, and a drive-thru at Castle Boulevard - in the next month as part of the deal.
SHG, which operates 38 KFC restaurants across the Midlands and northeast England, will also take over operations at Chaiiwala’s first Nottingham site.
Chaiiwala hopes that the deal will ultimately help boost its presence across the northeast.
“We’re delighted to welcome Splendid Hospitality on board as our new franchisee in Nottingham,” says Sohail Ali, co-founder of Chaiiwala.
“Splendid are a fantastic, proven operator of franchised brands, share our ambitions for scaling Chaiiwala, and have already hit the ground running with two new openings.
“These new locations complement our existing high street store, which is also now within Splendid’s operations, and enable us to make delicious Indian inspired street food and world class karak chaii even more accessible across all dayparts.”
In October, Chaiiwala reported a global sales jump of 35% to £89.4m for the year ended 31 December 2024. During the period, it sold more than nine million cups of chaii - an increase of 18% year-on-year - and more than 750,000 of its Wala wraps.
Chaiiwala opened 24 new stores globally across a variety of formats in 2024, including 15 in the UK stores that included at Birmingham and Luton airports as well as a second drive-thru in Mellor Brook.
“We believe our expansion in Nottingham can serve as a blueprint for future growth and see opportunities to replicate this model with a high street, drive thru, and shopping centre location within other major cities,” ads Ali.
“As we scale up and realise our ambitious expansion plans, this model will prove invaluable.”
Chaiiwala has previously unveiled plans to grow to at least 500 cafes across the UK in the next decade.