Fri 13th Mar 2026 - Azzurri Group to explore sale of Dave’s Hot Chicken’s European franchise Azzurri Group to explore sale of Dave’s Hot Chicken’s European franchise: Azzurri Group, TowerBrook Capital Partners-backed hospitality investment platform behind ASK Italian, Zizzi, Coco di Mama and Boojum, is reportedly set to explore a potential sale of the UK and European franchise rights for US brand Dave’s Hot Chicken. Bloomberg reports that a process could launch later this year. The Steve Holmes-led Azzurri secured the master franchise for the US brand in the UK and Ireland in 2024, outlining plans to open as many as 60 locations. It subsequently signed an exclusive agreement to roll out the brand across Europe and develop a minimum of 180 Dave’s Hot Chicken restaurants across ten European countries, including Portugal, Spain and Germany. Founded in 2017 by three friends who launched the concept from a parking lot in East Hollywood, Dave’s Hot Chicken has since grown rapidly through a franchise-led model. The fast-casual brand focuses on Nashville-style chicken sliders, tenders and crinkle-cut fries with a range of spice levels. Azzurri plans to have 15 sites under the brand open in the UK by the end of June. The brand, which made its UK debut in autumn 2024, in London’s Shaftesbury Avenue, opened its eighth UK site last month in Leicester. Dave’s Hot Chicken will open in Sheffield and Bristol by the end of this month, and has also lined up openings in Cardiff, Dublin and Liverpool. Last month, Azzurri hired Lea Ghanem, formerly of Starbucks, as its new European business development director, to help launch Dave’s Hot Chicken on to the continent. Holmes told Propel last November: “We're opening one every three weeks now and we are very happy with how Dave’s is going – it’s trading in socks off. I’ve just returned from the brand’s annual conference in Nashville, and in the highest grossing revenue restaurants globally list, Shaftesbury Avenue was the second across the circa 300-strong estate, behind one in the US. We had a free slider day, and we had to close Shaftesbury Avenue, Birmingham and Manchester at several periods during the day because the demand was so big. I’m thinking you can’t close restaurants, this is bad news – but then I stand back and you think, this is unbelievable, we’ve got so many people that want to come into the restaurants in three cities that were advised not to open the doors! What we have also found is we take a lot of money late at night. We do a lot of trade after 1am – it’s unbelievable how busy it is between 11pm and 2am.” Roark Capital, the investment firm behind Dunkin’ and Arby’s, agreed to acquire a controlling stake in Dave’s Hot Chicken last year, in a $1bn deal. TowerBrook declined to comment. Dave's Hot Chicken features in the UK Food & Beverage Franchisor Database, one of six databases available exclusively to Premium Club subscribers. A Premium Club subscription costs an annual sum of £495 plus VAT for operators and £595 plus VAT for suppliers. Companies can now have an unlimited number of people receive access to Premium Club for a year for £995 plus VAT – whether they are an operator or supplier. Email kai.kirkman@propelinfo.com today to sign up.