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belfast, we’re growing 🌱 our second home in the city has landed at the odyssey centre — and we couldn’t be prouder of the amazing new team bringing it to life every day doors are open, benches are set, and bowls are ready 🍜 come dine with us, soak up the buzz, and give the team a warm welcome see you at odyssey 💛
that’s a wrap on wagamama conference 2026 🤩 last week over 500 of our business leaders came together in leeds for our annual conference! there’s been a lot of excitement from our teams for this one, and it’s safe to say it was another incredible couple of days, as we looked back on the year just gone and get ready for another big one with general managers, head chefs, noodle hq, our central production unit and our amazing business partners, we came together to celebrate our focus for the upcoming year: becoming famed for hospitality ] exploring what it means to go above and beyond for our guests, we held an inspiring q+a session with a legend of hospitality, the one and only fred sirieix. plus we hosted talks with our talented development chefs headed up by the brilliant steven mangleshot of course, all of this was rounded off with our annual awards ceremony, where we celebrated the leaders who have already been going to the next level in their restaurant + at hq. with everyone suited and booted and aj odudu on the mic hosting, the energy and excitement in the room was fantastic. we want to say a huge congratulations to all the well deserved winners on the night 👏
here at wagamama, we are always the ones to keep the excitement flowing and that’s just what we have been doing when it comes to our new openings! ireland are you ready? we have some brand-new restaurants coming to dublin and we are sure ready to shout about it. this week we have been out and about finding the next service legends to help open our doors and bring the magic ✨ and what magic ireland has brought! we are so excited to be on the journey with all these incredible people joining the team and can’t wait to see these restaurants grow, open and flourish 🌱 new chapters, new wagamama if you are interested in opportunities with wagamama, wherever you may be, feel free to check out our careers page for more information on opportunities near you
we are so excited to share that wagamama has been named best omnichannel brand at the #mcahospitalityawards! ⭐ we feel honoured and proud to have been recognised by our industry peers with this award, which reflects our commitment to innovation as seen in the launch of our soul club loyalty app, and our ongoing channel diversification across delivery, retail, and digital a huge thank you goes to our incredible teams both in restaurant and in hq, and of course our guests - this award wouldn’t have been possible without you! here’s to continuing to bring our wagamama magic to our guests in more new and exciting ways 🌎
this week saw international women’s day; a day about lifting each other up. truly hearing women and empowering them. and creating space for growth, opportunity and support - this week, we visited hmp new hall in leeds to run an employability session with a group of incredible women. together we explored skills, self-esteem and confidence, ending the session with personal commitments to their own journeys, and exploring how following the philosophy of kaizen can create small steps towards big change - this visit felt extra special with ana, our gm from doncaster, joining us. as a hiring manager and female leader, ana shared her experiences and offered insight and inspiration to a group of women preparing for their next chapter. their response? pure empowerment. the words they shared reflected the huge impact of hearing from someone who truly believes in them - we’ve worked closely with hmp new hall for over a year now, and our partnership with the ministry of justice + hmps goes even further. we continue to be committed to supporting individuals on their rehabilitation journey, because at wagamama, we believe in people. in potential. in kaizen: always growing, always moving forward 🌱 - to the women who joined us, to the prison and charity workers who dedicate themselves to this mission, and to everyone out there creating change: thank you - happy international women’s day 🌍
some snapshots from our 2025 conference 🎆 - just a taste of an incredible two days in manchester, where we came together to look forward to this upcoming year, while reflecting on the wins from the last. 2025 is our year of going beyond kaizen. with engaging breakout sessions, fascinating talks and the return of the much-loved star awards, this year's conference felt like a true celebration of our teams and their unfaltering passion and dedication, the thing that drives us forward as a brand - we can't wait to see how our teams bring the visions shared in manchester to life in our restaurants over the next 12 months. stay tuned! 👀
this week, it was all about our apprentices ✨ - we had the pleasure of celebrating the graduation of our amazing apprentices across a variety of our programmes, from our hospitality pathways level 2 to level 5, to our more niche offerings such as hr support and digital marketer 🎓 - each graduate took the stage to receive their certificate and scroll, surrounded by their family, friends, and colleagues who have supported their journeys and were there to share in their success - we saw 14 individuals who have been promoted – some multiple times – since completing their programme, and 8 of our graduates have already moved on to their second programme since completion! it was a true celebration of progress, commitment, and growth - to all our graduates: thank you for your dedication and hard work. we’ve loved watching your journeys and can’t wait to see what incredible things you do next #naw2025 #skillsforlife #wagamamagraduation
at wagamama, we have a promise with our people to create spaces for them to nourish + flourish. this november we launched 65 workshops across 13 major cities, inviting over 900 of our restaurant leaders to join us for a day in mastering management ✌ - leading from the front, our junior sous chefs + junior front of house managers come together across the country to discover + practice new skills such as communication, training in a diverse world and delivering great team briefs - inspiring from the front, our sous chefs + front of house managers levelled up their leadership skills in coaching, delegating and motivating the team around them - the ongoing development of our managers is at our hearts. this is just the beginning for our teams as we lead into 2025 and continue to empower + grow our leaders 🌱
our true inclusion allies recently met at noodle hq to discuss upcoming events + direction of activity in the diversity + inclusion space here at wagamama - the allies group is made up of a mixture of team from all over the country, both front of house + kitchen team, headed up by our kaizen culture lead, john - the group make sure we’re always challenging the status quo and shining a lens on what’s important for our team to make sure that they work somewhere with a huge sense of belonging ❤️
this year’s pride activity was focused on the origins of pride as a protest reminding us that, within the all-important celebration + glitter, it’s still illegal + punishable to be lgbtq+ in a number of countries around the world and, sadly, homophobia + transphobia can still be commonplace for some members of the community here in the uk - to be truly inclusive, wagamama believes + stands by zero tolerance. mutual respect and a safe sanctuary for all - that’s why this year we went bigger than ever before. we closed restaurants in the north, south + london, inviting those who wanted to participate along, partnering with the incredible trackie mcleod to bring placard making workshops to life for our team ahead of their pride events amongst djs, drag queens from the local community, and of course our delicious wagamama food 🍜
