COOK dishes up first Scottish shop

The branch of COOK, which was set up in 1997 by entrepreneur Edward Perry, will be the firm’s 25th franchise but Perry hopes to continue expanding the model north of the Border.

Perry and chef Dale Penfold founded COOK as an alternative to mass-produced supermarket ready meals and the brand has since become popular with busy working parents who want to feed their families quickly but healthily.

The firm, which also has a network of 57 company-owned shops, says it can trace every single meal back to the chef who made it.

The Scottish franchise store will be owned and run by Trish Leckie who has spent her career in the hospitality industry. She approached the company herself about becoming a franchisee after she moved up north from Dorking in Surrey and was disappointed to find no COOK shops in Scotland and the north-west of England.

Perry said COOK, which is headquartered in Kent, will continue to grow along a dual model of franchise and company-owned stores, which the former mostly concentrated in Scotland and the north of England.

“The thing that underpins everything in the business is we want to stay independent. We have no appetite for venture capital – it’s a family business and we want to keep it that way,” said the 40-year-old entrepreneur.