Glasgow's Bar Soba is to pay their staff the National Living Wage, it has been announced. 

The company, who are celebrating 16 years in business, confirmed that employees will receive the National Living Wage from February 1. 

The award-winning Pan-Asian Street Food kitchen and creative Cocktail bar concept was established in Glasgow in 1999 and now operates five venues across Glasgow, Edinburgh and Leeds.

The brand is currently undergoing a rapid expansion and Managing Director, Brad Stevens is keen to make Soba one of the first Scottish bar and restaurant brands which successfully expands into the rest of the UK and beyond.

They opened their first venue South of the border in Leeds in April, 2015 and further openings in Manchester and Liverpool are already in the pipeline for 2016.

He said: “My ambitions for Soba are relentless and can only be achieved with one vital ingredient.

"That ingredient is the “team” from our kitchen porters to our general managers, our people are the heart and soul of the brand, and we cannot make this happen without the commitment and desire of everyone involved.

"Part of the process in taking Soba forward as a company is to adopt the Living Wage early. We want to be leaders, not followers and we want to entice, encourage and reward our people who are helping us in our quest to be a leading light in this industry."

The wage increase will take effect for all staff who are 25 or over. Soba also recognise that some of their hardest working staff are under the age of 25 and they will also be offered the wage increase based on their experience. The firm say under 25s who are new to the industry will be placed on a training and development plan which will allow them to achieve the increase before they reach 25.