The billionaire Issa brothers are planning to open more Leon cafés and Cooplands bakeries on Asda sites and petrol stations, creating 22,700 jobs.

The Blackburn-based entrepreneurs will also accelerate openings for brands such as KFC and Starbucks on hundreds of forecourts and Asda car parks.

The brothers have been expanding their operations at breakneck speed over the years through a series of acquisitions. They are now seeking to combine their various offerings.

The openings are a combination of outdoor and indoor sites in petrol stations and Asda supermarkets.

The Issas bought Asda with private equity firm TDR in 2020, closely followed by the acquisition of Leon and Cooplands last year. They also own EG Group, the petrol station empire that spans 6,300 sites globally.

Cooplands, the UK’s second largest bakery chain, will launch 30 outlets, and Leon at least 50 sites a year in the next five years.

The move is expected to create 32,000 jobs in total, including the sites outside of the UK. EG Group also increased wages to £10.05 for UK staff.

The Issas have been adding Asda shops to their petrol stations and plan to have about 300 in the coming years as they seek to stop shoppers from going elsewhere.

Mohsin and Zuber Issa said: “As EG continues to go from strength to strength, we will be creating a large number of new jobs over the coming years, particularly in our successful foodservice business ‒ which remains a significant growth opportunity globally.

“We are proud to be a business founded in Britain that invests in job creation worldwide, while focusing heavily on the training and development of colleagues.

EG Group posed a 16.3pc increase in underlying profits to $1.4bn (£1bn) in 2021, driven primarily by selling its food services.