Winding Paths And Road Blocks

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Funny enough I don't eat Nando's anymore as I have another restaurant that puts them to shame called Callistos.

Yesterday I wrote a post highlighting how long it takes a business to become established and how deep those pockets need to be to fund the growth through marketing initiatives.

I was in the UK in 1994 when Nando's opened their first branch outside of South Africa. The concept came from a Portuguese chicken restaurant called Fernandos up the road from where I currently live in Johannesburg.

I used to love Nando's so the London restaurant was a schlep to drive too (90 minutes each way) ,but would make the trip religiously at least once per week. I got to know the manager of the branch well so the obvious route next would be to buy into the franchise as I knew the possibilities were huge.

Owning a restaurant was nothing new to me as my dad was a chef and knowing the hours one puts in didn't scare me off. I met with the owners at their offices in Staines and proceeded to get the run down of the costs involved. I was the ideal person as firstly I new the business from a South African angle plus pretty much knew the menu inside out. I was most likely one of their best customers at this point so was a walking advert.

I went through the business plan and roll out plus the break down of the branch that I had selected being Leicester Square in the heart of the West End of central London. Not surprisingly the costs were horrendous, but that didn't scare me off as I knew long term this was a winner. Having the second branch even though they were losing money at the time just felt right as they were breaking even at this point after being open for just over two years. I knew the location was paramount and it would take off.

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They are everywhere now and all owned by the same group and not individually owned. I should have grabbed one when I had the chance.

I also did a costing of my own using certain contacts I had so found another site in Brighton, a seaside town in Sussex that was also a university town. These numbers were a whole lot better offering for a bigger sit down area and the numbers came in at around 20% of central London.

I didn't see why I had to pay for things like the soda fountains which companies like Coca Cola gave you in the first place because you are selling their product. Their costing of over $50 000 was ludicrous when I knew it was for free. There were a few other items as well which needed highlighting on my second visit.

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They are literally everywhere today.
The second meeting I could tell something was up as they were not so eager anymore and were trying to put me off. I believe they had received some investment from a backer and wanted the sites for themselves. They told me the closest site I could now have was Birmingham which was a set back as I had done so much homework with time and money invested up till this point.

I spent the next hour trying to sell them on the idea of my site in Brighton, but they wouldn't budge. Who knew that this chain was going to be in the top 2 fast food chains in the UK and have a world wide presence in less than 10 years from then. Remarkable growth that kind of blew me away and something I regret walking away from. There are now more than 422 Nando's in the UK and over 1200 world wide.

In my family we had a saying "what is meant to be is meant to be" but I used to believe that codswallop then. but quite the opposite now. That to me is someone who gives up and doesn't fight and find a way to make it be. So much of my life would have changed if I had a different attitude back then as there were possibly 4 or 5 opportunities to travel a different path and each one ended with "what is meant to be". I at least see that now and why facing a challenge head on is the only way as the vast majority of people never do and why they end up settling for an average life with an average income.

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