A RESTAURANT chain is to open its fifth site in the region, creating 20 jobs, and has plans to continue expanding.

Joe Rigatoni's, which has restaurants in Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Stockton, is expected to open in Yarm high street in November.

Owner Paolo Arceri has bought the McCoys bistro, above gift store Strickland and Holt, from brothers Eugene and Tom McCoy and Marcus Bennett, who also run the Cleveland Tontine, on the A19, in North Yorkshire, and the Rooftop Restaurant, at the Baltic, in Newcastle.

Eugene McCoy said: "We have too much on with what we are doing at the Tontine and in Newcastle and we didn't have the time to run the Yarm McCoys. There is no point having a restaurant if you can't commit yourself to it totally.

"It was a popular site and I think the Joe Rigatoni's style will work very well there. This has been on the cards for some time."

Mr Arceri, 37, recently teamed up with Phil Preston to open Joe Rigatoni's first franchise business at Castlegate, in Stockton. The £250,000 venture saw the transformation of the former McQuay's restaurant and the creation of 20 jobs.

Mr Arceri, who was born in Middlesbrough, said: "So far, the Stockton restaurant has been a huge success and we will definitely be opening more franchised sites in the future.

"It is hard to own and run more than a handfull of sites, so that is why I have moved into franchising.

"For the time being, I think I will continue looking for sites within the region, in particular, Bishop Auckland, Guisborough and Redcar."

The company has recently invested £25,000 in a centralised booking system installed in the Middlesbrough head office.

"The computer system handles bookings for all our restaurants and sorts out all the table planning, which maximises the number of people we can get through the door and saves time for our staff," said Mr Arceri.

"It also stores customers' details, sends out menus, takes pre-orders and tells us when a customer last came to the restaurant or when their birthday is."

Joe Rigatoni's recently closed its restaurant in Wylam Wharf, in Sunderland.