Swansea’s third Nando’s opens next Wednesday — with the finishing touches now in place at Parc Fforestfach.
Posters in the restaurant’s windows confirm the opening date: “Loading… we’re testing out our grills,” they read, ahead of the official opening on Wednesday July 22.
When Swansea Bay News visited on Wednesday, the transformation was complete — the chain’s red lettering above a curved timber frontage, black-and-tan chevron panelling, a neon cockerel on the wall and the trademark red heart over the doors, with a “Go all in” menu board already out front.
The peri-peri chicken chain’s arrival has been a long time coming. Swansea Bay News first reported in October that planning documents had revealed Nando’s was lined up to take over the retail park’s Card Factory unit.
The restaurant occupies a 3,945 sq ft unit, with those earlier planning documents suggesting around 40 jobs would be created.
It becomes the chain’s third restaurant in the city, joining the existing branches at Morfa Shopping Park and on Wind Street.
The opening was confirmed in May — alongside news that American buttermilk chicken brand Wingers had chosen the same retail park for its first Welsh restaurant, also its biggest anywhere in the UK.
Wingers, which invested more than £300,000 in its 2,040 sq ft unit, has since opened its doors — meaning the retail park gains two new restaurants within weeks of each other.
The chicken boom rolls on
The Nando’s opening is the latest instalment in the fried chicken boom that has swept Swansea and Llanelli over the past 18 months — Wingstop and Slim Chickens on Wind Street, and Popeyes drawing 18-hour overnight queues on Oxford Street before repeating the trick at Parc Trostre.
It comes in the same week the city’s burger trade went the other way — Carl’s Jr on Wind Street closed its restaurant and switched to delivery-only, less than a year after opening.
The retail park openings serve a different audience from the Wind Street cluster: car-borne family trade, lunch and dinner rather than post-pub.
Nando’s has been steadily expanding its south-west Wales footprint — and sets a high bar locally, with the Llanelli branch ranked the second-best Nando’s in Wales on Tripadvisor reviews earlier this year.
A retail park transformed
The two restaurant arrivals are part of a wider reshaping of the retail park, which owner M Core has rebranded as M Parc Fforestfach.
A 24-hour Anytime Fitness gym is planned for the former Homesense unit, while children’s activity centre Zuno Play and pet retailer Jollyes are among the other recent or pending additions.
Adam Martin of LCP UK, part of M Core, said earlier this year that the lettings reflected a strategy of attracting well-loved, high-quality brands to strengthen the park’s appeal.
For now, the countdown is on — doors open next Wednesday, and the grills are already lit.
