Restaurant News Sponsored by Ditsch UK
Chaiiwala, the UK’s leading Indian street food café brand, is excited to announce plans to open a new drive‑thru location in Blackburn, situated at Grimshaw Retail Park. This launch marks the brand’s second drive‑thru opening in just six months.
Founded in Leicester in 2015, Chaiiwala has built a strong following for its signature Karak chaii – brewed meticulously each day using a unique seven‑spice blend – and its authentic, high‑quality Indian street food. From breakfast roti wraps, Bombay bowls, Wala wraps, and indulgent desserts, the menu offers an exciting, flavour‑packed alternative at any time of day. Every dish is made using premium ingredients and recipes inspired by traditional Indian home cooking.
The upcoming Blackburn drive‑thru builds on a period of strategic expansion across the UK. As the Group looks to make Indian street food more accessible across all dayparts and purchase occasions, Chaiiwala has expanded its footprint to better serve high traffic, on-the-go consumers. Over the past 18 months, this has included openings its first airport locations, its first container concept at Watford Gap motorway services, as well as drive-thrus in regions across the UK.
In addition, the opening strengthens Chaiiwala’s footprint in Blackburn and Lancashire more widely. With a number of stores already serving different parts of the county for different customer occasions, the new drive-thru will create new opportunities for Chaiiwala is to serve flavourful Indian street‑food‑inspired meals on the go.
This new opening supports Chaiiwala’s UK growth strategy. With more than 100 cafés across the country today, the brand aims to scale to 500 global locations within the next decade as demand for high‑quality, accessible Indian food continues to rise.
Sohail Ali, Co‑Founder of Chaiiwala, said: “Blackburn is an important town for us. With a strong existing footprint in the town and across Lancashire, our new drive-thru will enable us to deepen our connection with local consumers and create new opportunities and occasions for them to enjoy delicious chaii or our Indian street food on-the-go.
“It is also the fourth location of our fantastic franchisees Arif and Yakub. After opening their first store in 2017, the pair have been huge advocates of the brand and played an important role in shaping our franchisee engagement strategy as members of our Franchise Committee. This location – their first drive-thru – will present another opportunity for them to grow with us, while supporting our UK expansion strategy.”
Itinerary: The Mediterranean aha Forum, in Partnership with VisitMalta Incentives & Meetings
