Do I hear ...
Road Trip
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Oh, ladies and gents, I was curious and I had a peek. I can't find very much information about Taco Bells located here in the UK, but I
did find
something...
Yum! Restaurants International owns five names:
- A&W (Rootbeer) Restaurants
- KFC
- Long John Silvers (NB: I wouldn't mind having this one too)
- Pizza Hut
- Taco Bell
They are actively looking to expand their restaurants internationally and are taking applications for people to take on franchises. They will not consider any applications with less than three resturants wanted.
Their FAQ has this answer about foreign locations:
Does YRI plan to franchise Taco Bell outside the US? Taco Bell is present in a number of countries outside the US. We are, however, focusing our initial Taco Bell development initiatives on a few select countries before considering expansion. Further enquiries should be made to the YRI Franchise Centre for the region in which you are interested.
I would say that the UK falls into one of those 'select' categories because there
are Pizza Huts and KFCs here.
I have not been able to find Taco Bell locations, except in the US, on their website at
http://www.tacobell.com, but I'm not giving up hope.
They
do have a UK Yum! Restaurants International location:
Great Britain and Europe Restaurant Support Centre
32 Goldsworth Road
Working, Surrey GU21 1JT
England
Phone: (44) 1483-717-000
Fax: (44) 1483-717-018
...except I think whoever typed it has never been to Woking...
A downside...
I came across this explanation, I don't know the person's credentials, but if you can get past the wording of the text, the jist of it makes a lot of sense, sadly.
In order to maximize profits, Taco Bells' ingredients are almost entirely pre-packaged. Vegetables are already chopped. Meat is already cooked, and packed in a vacuum-sealed bag for reheating. Taco shells and chips are pre-fried. Millions of flour tortillas are churned out daily from a factory which resembles a concentration camp in Los Angeles. Refried beans? Those are dried, and look a bit like rabbit turds until one rehydrates them with boiling water. Now, even with the British reputation of being poor cooks, a restaurant could probably find English suppliers for raw ingredients, like flour, corn meal, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, beef, chicken, the whole bit. But, contracting with suppliers to cook food for a handful of British Taco Bell outlets would not be cost-effective. The EU ban on American growth-hormone-laden beef makes importing the stuff impossible.
Anyway, as I see it, someone's gotta build
one two three and go through a tremendous amount of hassle to get suppliers. Anyone interested, their website is:
http://www.trigfp.com/home.htm. Oh, and let me know where you put them.
