Taco Bell will be up and running in North Lakes before Christmas

Tex-Mex lovers north of Brisbane will get an early Christmas present this year when global fast-food giant Taco Bell opens its latest venue for business.

TEX-MEX lovers at North Lakes will get an early Christmas present this year when global fast food giant Taco Bell opens for business.

The company confirmed today that its North Lakes store, among the first to be established in Australia, will be open before Christmas.

An exact date is still to be determined.

The new store is being built at the corner of Flinders Pde and Diamond Jubilee Way.

It will be the third Mexican style fast food restaurant in the suburb, with Zambrero and Gomez y Guzman already established.

Storegoers can expect to pick up a Crunchy Taco for $2.50, tortilla chips for $2.95 (dipping sauce an extra $1), frozen margaritas at $7 and Corona beer for $6.

Taco Bell staff in Annerley. Taco Bell is expanding to North Lakes. (AAP Image/Claudia Baxter)

For something a little more hearty, there is Double Taco Supreme, Grilled Stuft Burrito, Quesadillas, Stacked Nachos Supreme and more.

Once opened, the retail area near Cook Crt/Flinders Pde will contain the only Costco store in Queensland and one of just a handful of Taco Bell restaurants in the entire country.

Throw in a Bunnings, a McDonalds, a Total Tools, a fuel outlet, poor traffic management and Christmas shoppers coming from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, and the area is expected to be fairly congested with traffic over the next few weeks, particularly at weekends.

Paula Nelson General Manager of Emerging Brands for Collins Foods Limited outside the Annerley Taco Bell during its construction. Pic Annette Dew

Taco Bell’s North Lakes store is part of the brand’s expansion into Australia already “saturated” fast food industry.

Parent company Collins Foods opened its first Taco Bell store at Annerley last year with plans to open another two at Robina and Cleveland.

It also planned to open a further 50 stores across Australia between 2019-2021 with the locations yet to be announced.

Taco Bell in Annerley, Brisbane on Thursday, January 18, 2018. Taco Bell is expanding to North Lakes. (AAP Image/Claudia Baxter)

Collins Foods managing director Graham Maxwell said in a statement to the ASX, “We have seen tremendous enthusiasm for the Taco Bell brand in Australia, and this is reflected in the continued strong performance of our Annerley restaurant.”

It is the third time the California-based chain has attempted to crack the Australian market.

It first headed Down Under in the early 1980s but was sued out by a local restaurant with a similar name.

It returned in 1997 by 2005 had again exited the country.

Australians spend $20 billion annually on fast food and the industry employs some 152,000 people, according to market researchers Ibis World.

The biggest brands are Domino’s, McDonald’s and Subway.

Worldwide, Taco Bell serves more than two billion customers a year from San Francisco to Shanghai.