NANDO'S

Nando's



Nando's

Introduction

Nando's is a casual restaurant rather than a fast-food one - another aspirational touch. The food is energetically spiced, where so many of its competitors are bland, and grilled to order, where the competition fries food and then lets it sit around.

A big part of the chain's success is its cross-class, cross-race appeal. Some customers - often those with children - eat there because it's both better tasting and less toxic than other chain alternatives; others because it is, in an unpretentious and unselfconscious way, aspirational.

Discussion

History

It all started in 1987, when Robby Brozen and his friend, Fernando Duarte, visited a restaurant called Chickenland in Rossettenville, South Africa, and fell in love with PERi-PERi flamed grilled chicken. They bought the restaurant and changed the name to Nando's. Five years later, Nando's moved to the UK, where Robby Enthoven opened the first Nando's restaurant in Ealing, London. Robbie's vision was not just to build another chain of restaurants that serve chicken-based meals, but to create something unique that was based around the many aspects of the South African-Portuguese culture which had played a big part in the formative years of his life. He wanted all restaurants to be individual and reflect their location and characteristics. Together with an engaging and inspiring style of people management and a quality product, the Nando's brand was born (Agran, pp. 78-86).

Present Situation

From this point onwards, a remarkable and unique multinational business unfolded. Fast forward to 2010, the company employs 7,000 people in the UK, operates 228 restaurants, and is growing at a rate of 15 to 20 more restaurants on a year-by-year basis. Internationally, it has developed a portfolio of franchise agreements that, whilst staying close to the core values and culture of Nando's, allows flexibility for the culture of the countries they operate in to be incorporated . In March 2010, Nando's achieved first place in the Sunday Times Top 25 Best Big Companies to Work For (a 'big company' is classed as one with 5,000 or more employees). In 2009, Nando's celebrated achieving the maximum three stars in the Best Companies Accreditation award. They were the only big company in the UK to achieve three stars. This award measures eight key areas, including personal growth, well-being, and leadership. In 2010, they again entered the Sunday Times competition, and once again received three stars, showing not only quality but sustained commitment to the leadership and management development across the organization (Thomas, pp. 9-16).

National Training Awards are the most prestigious awards for training in the UK, and, at Nando's, they have achieved awards for five of their in-house training schemes. These are: buddy systems ('buddies' are staff who help train new staff); new restaurants opening training; working in management teams (team building); Nando's inductions; and coaching programmes. In addition, Nando's was first recognized as an Investor in People in 1998. They are now celebrating ten years of recognition (Taylor, pp. 26-43).

Meal offered

Chicken is what Nando's ...