A Sri Lankan restaurant chain has “come out of Covid strongly”, according to the company’s co-founder, who also spoke to Insider about the company’s plans for the next 12 months.

The Coconut Tree was founded by a group of five Sri Lankan friends and family, who moved to Cheltenham from London in 2016.

Finding accommodation above an old pub, they saw an opportunity in transforming the old ale house into “something more”.

It now has operations across the South East and South West, as well as eateries in Birmingham and Cardiff.

Speaking to Insider, co-founder Rodrigo said the company had “come out of Covid strongly – we grew the business but ensured it stayed authentic to our Sri Lankan roots”.

“Our first Birmingham location opened in March 2022, following on from 2021 where we opened two sites in Bath (May 2021) and Reading (Aug 2021),” he added. “We now have nine across the UK.

“We won Channel 4’s Come Dine With Me: The Professionals in July 2022 with the highest score of series – and took the winning menu on a Roadshow around all restaurants through Sept-Nov 22 – it was a great success and made us realise how important it is to get everyone trying Sri Lankan food.

“To allow people to eat at home, we became exclusive to UBER eats across all restaurants from Nov 2022. We also refocussed on promoting ourselves and our roots through a fresh look at what we did on PR and social media – we know both are so important as we set ourselves a target of 100,000 people trialling our food.”

The company’s employee numbers also grew from 225 to 275, with Rodrigo eyeing further expansion.

“Overall, we want to continue to grow awareness of Sri Lankan food and culture,” he said. “We have an ambitious plan to open at least six new The Coconut Tree restaurants across the country in 2023.

“We’re also looking at strengthening our ties with our home country of Sri Lanka. And we’re keen to extend our offering with merchandise so watch this space.”

Rodrigo is conscious that The Coconut Tree “will always face competition, especially if eating out”.

“We need to ensure we stick to our roots and continue to deliver in every restaurant,” he said. “In straitened times we need to be offering value to keep people coming back – we have a large number of very loyal customers and will be focussing on developing our loyalty strategies further in the New Year.

“We’d like to more widely include families, parties, special occasions, work dos – introducing even more people to our food and ambience.”