LATIN dance club operator Bardello is targeting Greater Manchester for new venues as it seeks to capitalise on the popularity of TV's Strictly Come Dancing.

Bardello has appointed surveyors Colliers CRE to find it up to 30 sites in the UK over the next five years.

It is planning outlets in Manchester, Alderley Edge and Hale and is already in talks with the landlords at The Printworks in Corporation Street. Bardello is also understood to be considering a site at Allied London's Spinningfields complex in the city centre.

The dance clubs, to include bars, restaurants and Strictly Come Dancing-style competitions, will be aimed at single young professionals and couples in their late 20s and 30s.

Bardello, based in Tamworth, hopes to sign its first lease this autumn, with the aim of opening its first clubs next spring.

Ross Kirton, associate director at Colliers CRE, said: "We are targeting the affluent towns in the north west, because the demographics are right.

"Strictly Come Dancing has been a great success, and Manchester's venue could be among the first to open."

The venture is being funded in partnership with the Universal Payment Group.