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Popeyes is preparing to open its first Norfolk restaurant at Broadland Gate Business Park in Postwick, near Norwich, according to the Norwich Evening News on 18th October. The drive-through is being developed alongside a new M&S Food Hall, with plans approved in February 2025. The chain is also expected to open a store in King's Lynn and is currently recruiting a general manager.
The Norfolk push is part of a wider UK expansion. Popeyes has more than 120 restaurants open, having grown from 64 UK sites at the end of 2024 to 108 by the end of 2025, then opening a further 18 sites this year. The brand, which launched in Britain in 2021, plans around 150 restaurants across the UK and Republic of Ireland by the end of 2026.
For vendors selling into hospitality, each new Popeyes site is a discrete buying window. A drive-through requires POS hardware, kitchen display systems, drive-through audio, payments terminals and workforce scheduling software, often specified before opening. The King's Lynn site and the general manager hire suggest at least two Norfolk openings are being planned in parallel, which doubles the prospect surface for suppliers who move early.
The Norwich Evening News also notes a bogus job advert that prompted Popeyes to launch a formal investigation, and an independent listing on popeyesmenu.co.uk claiming a restaurant was planned for St Benedict's Street in Norwich. Neither has been confirmed by the company. Vendors prospecting the brand should treat only verified openings as live leads.
Blank Street Coffee sets Liverpool opening for November 1
American chain Blank Street Coffee is launching its first Liverpool store in Liverpool ONE on Sunday, November 1, per the Liverpool Echo on 18th October. The brand is taking over the former Krispy Kreme on Paradise Street. It already operates in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and has lined up openings in Bristol and Cambridge.
The Liverpool site is a standalone kiosk with a curved facade mirroring the brand's first location, Wythe Diner in Brooklyn. It is expected to seat 12 people internally and serve 400 to 450 customers per day, rising to around 800 at peak times. Customers will place orders with staff rather than self-service kiosks, and no toilet facilities are proposed given the takeaway nature of the unit.
Ignacio Llado, co-founder at Blank Street, said: "Liverpool has been a project two years in the making. You only open your first store in a city once, so it had to be the ultimate Blank Street experience. The location and the design had to be perfect, and I'm convinced we got there."
The staffing model matters for vendors. A kiosk doing up to 800 covers a day with staff-led ordering and no self-service kiosks puts pressure on queue speed, which is where handheld POS, mobile order-ahead and kitchen display systems earn their keep. The Bristol and Cambridge pipeline means the Liverpool spec is likely to repeat across multiple new sites in the next twelve months.
Lefties opens second UK store at Lakeside
Lefties, part of the Inditex Group and a sister brand to Zara and Bershka, will launch its second UK store in West Thurrock on October 29, per the Clacton Gazette on 18th October. The 58,000 sq ft flagship is part of a £100 million investment programme at Lakeside shopping centre over the past three years. Lefties opened its first UK shop in Liverpool in August and plans a third in Gateshead later this year.
Drapers reports the UK expansion is expected to create more than 400 locally recruited jobs. The store will mark its opening weekend with a free coffee and matcha pop-up, which itself requires temporary POS, staffing and supply support, a direct opportunity for vendors who can service short-term foodservice activations.
For hospitality vendors, the wider signal is footfall. A 58,000 sq ft flagship at a major shopping centre pulls traffic that nearby cafes, coffee kiosks and grab-and-go operators absorb. Suppliers selling into those surrounding venues should track the opening calendar as a demand signal for their own prospects.
Stripe and Plasma push multi-currency stablecoin cards
Stripe and Plasma announced a collaboration on 16th October to launch multi-currency stablecoin cards, per Finextra. The aim is to let cardholders spend in currencies they already hold, cutting unnecessary conversions and FX costs. Supported fiat currencies include USD, BRL, EUR, MXN and COP, with stablecoins including OUSD and eligible GENIUS-ready stablecoins. Cards are available in 30-plus countries today, with plans to expand to 100-plus countries in 2027.
Henri Stern, Head of Stripe Crypto, said: "Stablecoins make it possible to hold and move money globally. We're working with Plasma to bring that same flexibility to spending, giving businesses the infrastructure to offer cards across currencies and markets without having to build it themselves."
For UK hospitality payment vendors, this is a competitive signal rather than an immediate product shift. The card infrastructure is aimed at businesses operating across markets, which includes international hospitality groups but not the typical single-site UK operator. The practical question is whether Stripe's stablecoin rails eventually feed into the merchant acquiring stack that UK venues already use, and whether incumbent processors respond with their own multi-currency card products.
Acorns buys Gen Z social finance app Frich
Savings and investment app Acorns has acquired Frich, a Gen Z-focused social finance app with a community of 1.6 million young adults, per Finextra. Financial terms were not disclosed. Frich, founded in 2021, built a benchmarking feature letting members compare financial habits with peers. Co-founders Katrin Kaurov and Aleksandra Medina join Acorns as co-leads of education and community.
Noah Kerner, CEO of Acorns, said: "Investing is intimidating. Doing it with others can help people get past that. Katrin and Aleksandra helped a lot of people say 'I don't know' out loud, and that's a good place to start."
The hospitality angle is indirect. Acorns has been building a youth finance portfolio, having acquired British kids' money management company GoHenry in 2023 and EarlyBird in 2025. A Gen Z user base that benchmarks spending habits with peers is a demographic signal for hospitality operators and the vendors who sell them loyalty and payment tech. If younger consumers become more deliberate about discretionary spend, venues will lean harder on value-led offers and loyalty mechanics to protect frequency.
A note on Peach Data
Peach Data provides verified, TPS-screened contact data across thousands of UK hospitality venues, so vendors can reach the right decision-makers at the right time. peachdata.co.uk
