Sticks 'n' Sushi says UK now its largest market after record year

Danish restaurant chain Sticks 'n' Sushi said it expects the UK to remain its largest market in 2022 off the back of record sales.

The company has reported its highest earnings in its 28-year history, boosted by the launch of four delivery kitchens in London.

Revenue at the company hit £57m for the first time during the most recent financial year, ending at an unspecified date in 2021, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation reached £5.89m.

Sticks 'n' Sushi, which operates 12 restaurants in Denmark, nine UK locations and is soon to reach three in Germany, said the UK market had been "crucial" to the result.

"We opened our first location in London in March 2012, and we are starting to feel the effects of the hard and persistent work on a fiercely competitive market," said Andrea Karlsson, chief executive of Sticks 'n' Sushi.

"Today our British restaurants have overtaken the Danish market in terms of revenue, and I expect it to remain our largest market in 2022."

The company said it would continue its takeaway offer but would remain "first and foremost a restaurant" as it focused on expansion in Germany.

It has opened two restaurants in Berlin, with a third on the way, and is actively searching for fourth and fifth locations.

Sticks 'n' Sushi was founded by brothers Kim and Jens Rahbek Hansen and Thor Anderson, who opened the first restaurant in Copenhagen in 1994.

The company is now owned by private equity fund Maj Invest Equity.

In the UK, Sticks 'n' Sushi has seven London restaurants and one each in Oxford and Cambridge.