Bristol-based pie business Pieminister will open five new restaurants across the UK and create more than 80 new jobs after securing a £1.4m finance package from HSBC.

Pieminister will use the funding to open and fit-out the new sites as part of its strategy to target university cities. The finance will also be used to refinance existing sites in Manchester and Trentham in the Midlands, bringing the company’s portfolio of restaurants and cafés to 16.

Jon Simon, co-founder and managing director of Pieminister, said: “The five new stores, which wouldn’t have been possible without this latest round of funding from the bank, will underpin the next stage of our growth plans and will help to increase our turnover by around £4.5 million a year.”

The company’s existing restaurants and cafés are based in Bristol, Nottingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Oxford and London.

In March Pieminister entered the free-from market with the introduction of two gluten-free pies.