With takeaway stores across the city, fastfood chicken chain Miss Millie’s have been as Bristol as the Suspension Bridge or coloured houses.
For decades the chicken takeaway brand has been so ubiquitously Bristol’s answer to KFC that many Bristolians are still yet to realise that they don’t have Miss Millie’s everywhere in the country. In 2021 they were named, alongside Eat-A-Pitta and Taka Taka, for creating a uniquely Bristol takeaway food scene that other places just don't have.
But that is changing, and Bristol’s own chicken shop brand has just signed a deal which will expand the Miss Millie’s empire beyond the West of England.
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Since the late 1980s, when Harry Latham - KFC’s man in Britain - branched out on his own and set up the Miss Millie’s brand in Bristol, they have been a staple of the city’s high streets, and gradually expanded to far-flung places like Yate and Weston-super-Mare.
But now, Miss Millie’s has signed a deal with a franchise firm to expand the Miss Millie’s brand to at least ten new places in the south east of England, including in London, heralding a transformational period for the firm that has been staunchly Bristol for almost 35 years.
The growth plan has already seen Miss Millie’s open in Billericay in Essex, and late last year in the trendy east London hipsterville that is Walthamstow. But now a new Miss Millie’s has just opened in Southampton, and bosses say there will be more where that came from in the months and years ahead.
Such was the excitement in Southampton at the arrival of Miss Millie’s that the mayor of the city - Jacqui Rayment - cut the ribbon to open the store earlier this month.
Now Miss Millie’s said they have plans to expand even more, after signing a deal with the Scoffs Group. “The ten-store deal within Southampton and the Southeast region marks a new phase for both companies,” a spokesperson said. “For the Scoffs Group, it signals the company’s transition from a single to a multi-brand franchise. For Miss Millie’s, it launches the brand’s expansion into a new geographical region,” he added.
The legend of Miss Millie’s began with Harry Latham - who was Colonel Sanders’ right-hand man during the 1960s and 70s as the pair expanded the Kentucky Fried Chicken empire across Britain.
From the 1960s, Mr Latham ran the KFC UK franchise, and in the late 1980s, he got the Colonel’s permission to branch out on his own, and he created Miss Millie’s as a kind of KFC spin-off - named after the Colonel's own daughter - just in Bristol.
Miss Millie’s fed the city fried chicken for decades with outlets on the main roads of the city. To this day, there are still Miss Millie's feeding Bristolians in Whiteladies Road, Gloucester Road in Bishopston, the High Street in Staple Hill, Church Road in Redfield, Bedminster’s East Street, the Wells Road in Knowle and the Concourse on the A4 Bath Road in Brislington.
Other Miss Millie’s quickly opened in Weston and a couple in Cardiff - and when the last Welsh one closed in 2018, it was much-mourned on that side of the Bristol Channel.
Mr Latham retired in 1993, but his four daughters Ann Walker, Sheila Wilson, Kerry Baldin and Kate Ostrowski took over the running of the firm until they sold it in 2018, saying at the time "the decision to sell a business that’s been in our family for over 50 years was very tough despite us recognising the time had come".
Mr Latham passed away in 2019, a legend in the city, for creating Bristol’s very own fried chicken shop chain.
Now the new owners have ambitious plans. Initially curtailed by the pandemic, a Miss Millie’s opened in Yate in July 2020.
Then, in 2021, a Miss Millie’s went outside South Wales and the West Country for the first time, with the grand opening of a chicken shop in Billericay and in, November last year, in Walthamstow.
It is, according to Miss Millie’s, already a massive hit with the east Londoners - who are particularly keen on the chain’s new gourmet burgers.
Now it’s Southampton that are experiencing Miss Millie’s for the first time. “I’m very proud of our team, delivering an absolute ‘knockout’ new store design and menu for our latest store opening in Southampton.” said the firm’s managing director, Carl Traill. “Kudos to all of the team, for delivering and executing it brilliantly,” he added.
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