Guzman y Gomez to open 20 new Qld outlets over next 18 months

Restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez is fast-tracking its Queensland expansion, revealing ambitious plans to open almost 20 new outlets and drive-thrus over the next 18 months. See where some of the new outlets will be.

Restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez (GYG) is fast-tracking its Queensland expansion with ambitious plans to open almost 20 new outlets over the next 18 months.

Guzman y Gomez founder Steven Marks said the Queensland market was very important for the company, which opened its first Brisbane restaurant in Fortitude Valley in 2010 and has since rolled out 58 restaurants across the state.

Mr Marks said the company’s latest Queensland outlet opened at Milton on Thursday and served more than 5100 burritos and bows to locals on its first day. GYG will also open restaurants at Warner and Fairfield Waters later this month.

“We see so much opportunity in Queensland,” said Mr Marks. “Over the last two financial years, we have opened 11 restaurants in Queensland and are on track to open nine restaurants this year. Looking forward to 2024, we are set to open more than 10 drive-thrus.”

Guzman y Gomez said it is now one of the world’s fastest growing fast-food businesses with a mission to “reinvent fast-food” with made-to-order Mexican burritos, bowls, nachos and tacos. It now has more than 170 restaurants in Australia, Singapore, Japan and the US.

Guzman Y Gomez said it now projected to hit an eye-watering $1 billion in revenue by 2025 as it continues its ambitious rollout of stores.

Guzman y Gomez founder and CEO Steven Marks

Mr Marks, who co-founded GYG alongside fellow New Yorker Robert Hazan in 2006, admitted the journey hasn’t been an easy one, with it taking two years before the business even broke even. The chief executive couldn’t even afford to pay himself a salary until five years after he opened the first store.

The new drive-thru restaurants to be opened in Queensland next year include locations in Ripley, Maryborough, Yatala, Cleveland and the first Guzman drive-thru restaurants in Rockhampton and Toowoomba.

Nationwide GYG is on track to open 30 restaurants across the country both this year and next. GYG opened its second US restaurant in January at Schaumburg, Illinois, with a third US drive-thru set open in Crystal Lake, Illinois, on May 18.

GYG Milton is backed by franchisee Gayle Hancock, who already operates the Toowong, Indooroopilly, and Jindalee outlets.

“I have been a part of the GYG family for nearly seven years and continue to have the same passion as when I started,” said Ms Hancock.

Camila Alvarez, a first-year nursing student at Queensland University of Technology, will be taking the lead as a restaurant manager at Milton. Ms Alvarez has worked at various GYGs in Brisbane since moving here from Colombia nearly four years ago and “says the culture and the amazing food are what keeps her coming back”.