Popular burger chain Five Guys is the latest business to sign up to the £117m Friars Walk scheme in Newport, Queensberry Real Estate has confirmed.

The restaurant will be the fourth to open in Wales and the 44th location in the UK.

The letting comes after a succession of popular high street brands have opened at the retail and leisure destination, which launched in November, including shoe brand Skechers, mobile network provider EE and New Look’s new menswear concept, New Look Men.

Five Guys, the popular diner-style restaurant, will take a 3,000 sq ft store at the 390,000 sq ft retail and leisure destination.

Having originated in the USA, it now operates more than 3,000 sites and the brand has a well-established name on the UK dining scene.

It draws in punters with its no-nonsense quality fast food product and menu that allows customers to create bespoke burgers.

The letting sits opposite a 90,000 sq ft full-offer Debenhams Department Store, Friars Walk’s main anchor, on the corner of Upper Dock Street.

Stuart Harris, director and co-founder of Queensberry Real Estate, said: “We have worked hard to create a mix of restaurant operators that meet the demands of Newport’s existing customers, while attracting new visitors to the area.

"Five Guys, with its popular concept and recognised brand, is a great fit and a perfect complement for the other 12 family restaurants on offer. This unit, in particular, sits at the top of a new run of restaurants and shops, and we are working with a number of local Welsh independents on pop-up food and retail concepts to trade alongside the new burger restaurant.”

John Eckbert, UK CEO for Five Guys, said: “We are thrilled to announce the opening of Five Guys at the Friars Walk shopping centre in Newport this June.

"Our new restaurant will acquire a 3,000 square foot site, taking over units 27 and 28 of the ground floor mall. Since launching in the UK in 2013, Five Guys has received a cult like following across the country and just last month Five Guys was named Britain’s favourite restaurant, so we’re delighted to be opening our 47th restaurant in Newport’s vibrant city centre to become the burger of choice for locals and visitors alike.”

Having opened in November 2015, Friars Walk has attracted a host of new retail, dining and leisure names to Newport. These include the likes of H&M, Next and eight screen Cineworld multiplex cinema and restaurants including Loungers, Nando’s and Le Bistrot Pierre.

In less than six months, Friars Walk has been the catalyst for attracting record number of visitors to Newport and many of the new names are already reporting sales figures well ahead of predicted targets. The open air shopping centre is fully integrated with the neighbouring Kingsway Centre and the wider retail offer in Newport City Centre. The new scheme has increased Newport’s retail catchment from 211,000 to 367,000 and is anticipated to draw an additional footfall of 10-12 million per annum.

A focal point of the comprehensive programme of regeneration underway in Newport, Friars Walk was made possible by a unique public-private partnership that saw Newport City Council provide Queensberry Real Estate with access to a loan to fund the scheme. It is at the heart of the wider regeneration underway in the City and has already created 1,200 jobs in the new shops and restaurants worth an estimated £15 million a year in salaries to the local economy.

The letting agents for Friars Walk are Lunson Mitchenall and CBRE.