Vegan Prince Khaled, prolific investor of numerous vegan businesses across the world, has revealed plans to open 30 restaurants across the middle east. The plans are part of the Folia partnership, Prince Khaled’s consultancy and teaching partnership with vegan chef Matthew Kenney. Folia’s first plant-based menu – with ten items created by chef Kenney – became available earlier this year at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles.
The successful launch has encouraged Prince Khaled to expand his plans on plant-based restaurants. With the first one, Plant Café, already open in Bahrain and another in development in Riyadh, Prince Khaled said the plan is now to open the restaurants through licensing and franchise agreements.
Prince Khaled previously announced that he would like to open ten restaurants, but shifting the business model to licensing and franchising agreements will allow him to open more plant-based restaurants through his company, KBW Ventures.
The Prince said “The ten restaurants that I’m thinking of opening right now have grown to about 25 or 30. How’s that going to work? KBW Ventures is already in talks with Four Seasons so we can have our brand in Four Seasons properties in the Middle East – that automatically opens up six or seven locations in the region. So that’s an indirect way of me getting these products into restaurants.”
