Leisure company shakes up the market with nationwide store roll-out plans

A Cheshire leisure company is set to create around 100 jobs as it plots a nationwide store roll-out programme for its milkshake concept The Shake Lab.

TD4 Brands is opening another six stores over the next four months.

The company is led by Richard and Dawn O’Sullivan and backed by BGF, a long-term investor in growing businesses.

To support the roll-out BGF has invested more than £4m in the business since its initial investment in 2013. Banking partner Barclays has provided £650,000 of funding to support the expansion.

Co-founder and chief executive Richard O’Sullivan said: “Over the past 10 years our team has worked tirelessly to deliver a fantastic product and brilliant service to our customers, whom we never take for granted, and have made our brands, Boost and The Shake Lab, what they are today.

“It’s tremendously exciting to be rolling-out The Shake Lab into so many new locations. We operate in a really competitive market sector and are proud that The Shake Lab has been so well-received by consumers since we launched it at the Trafford Centre in Manchester in late 2015.”

He added: “Like Boost Juice, The Shake Lab is a vibrant, fun and delicious concept, which we believe has significant growth potential. We are always rigorous in our approach to new locations and we firmly believe in developing long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with landlords and shopping centre operators.”

TD4 has just opened five stores – two for each brand at the intu Victoria Centre in Nottingham and this month at Westfiled London and the new Westgate Oxford Centre, where more than 5,000 customers visited Boost and The Shake Lab in the first week of opening.

The next wave of launches will see The Shake Lab open at Meadowhall Sheffield in late November, at Westfield, Stratford London in early December and then in Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow and Leicester in February/March 2018.

Meanwhile, Boost Juice has recently renewed 10-year leases at the Lakeside Thurrock, Meadowhall Sheffield and Manchester Trafford shopping centres and agreed another five-year renewal at Westfield London.

Dawn O’Sullivan said: “2017 is our 10th anniversary and one of the many highlights for us was voted 2017 Food & Drink Retailer of the Year, by customers at the intu Trafford Centre, where we have three Boost stores.

“This is a fantastic achievement and one that could never have been accomplished without the hard work and dedication of our team.”