Clapham House Group, owner of Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK), has bolstered its management team with two new appointments as it plans to continue its ambitious growth.

Former Pizza Express regional operations directors Nabil Mankarious and Simon Blagden have joined the fast-growing company as operations director and brand development director, respectively, for Tootsies.

They will report to David Sykes, managing director of Gourmet Burger Kitchen, who was with PizzaExpress himself before joining Clapham House Group as managing director.

Clapham House Group completed the takeover of the Tootsies burger chain in April for more than £25m.

It plans to convert around a third of the sites to the GBK format and to tweak the menus at the remaining Tootsies, which will operate increasingly in shopping centre locations.

David Page and Paul Campbell, both ex-PizzaExpress directors, founded Clapham House Group in late 2003 to buy up small restaurant businesses to develop nationally.

Clapham House buys GBK >>

By Chris Druce

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