Robin (Robbie) Brozin: Changing the way the world thinks about chicken
After failing his accountancy exams "three or four times", Robbie Bronzie decided, wisely perhaps, that he would never make an accountant. So he decided to go into trading, initially distributing Sanyo products for his father’s company.
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A night out with his Portuguese friend Fernando Duarte was to change his life forever and to provide him with his life’s mission.
After eating the most divine chicken meal he had ever tasted at a café in Rosettenville, Brozin was so moved by the feast that he “bet the farm” and borrowed £25,000 from friends and family to buy the place. His vision was to “change the way the world thinks about chicken - one chicken at a time”. The café was called Chickenland at the time: a non-descript Portuguese café in a district of Johannesburg, the same suburb where reggae musician Lucy Dube was shot in 2007.
The big taste that changed his life was the now famous peri-peri (Swahili for ‘pepper-pepper’) sauce. And to achieve that succulent heavenly and utterly yummy taste, the chicken (always fresh) has to be flamed grilled by pouring the peri-peri sauce on it while cooking, so as to keep the chicken moist and succulent.
Brozin changed the name to Nando’s after his friend Fernando, and also to reflect the Portuguese heritage of the sauce. Portuguese settlers to Rosettenville north of Johannesburg where the restaurant was situated had created the sauce from African bird’s ye chilli.
Almost three decades later, Nando’s has a huge following of millions across the world, who flock regularly to its one thousand plus restaurants in 24 countries. Devotees are rumoured to include Barak Obama, Rhianna, David Cameron, David Beckham and Lewis Hamilton. With a Nando’s two minutes away from the Oxford & Beaumont London office, my team and I are also devotees.
Nando’s is by far the most valuable South African retail brand and perhaps the most global African company. It is the biggest international restaurant chain from our continent. According to branding guru Thebe Ikalafeng: “It was the first African brand to successfully challenge KFC and it shows the capability of Africa to build global consumer brands which are typically dominated by Europe and US.”
The distinct factor
The difference between Nando’s and its competitors though is that Nando’s has built a global presence with relatively little spend. Its commercials are irreverent and cheeky and it is not afraid to take risks by courting controversy. The first ad it aired in South Africa was actually banned immediately. It showed two chickens engaged in passionate sex to explain why Nando’s chicken tastes so great.
A more recent commercial, also banned, featured Robert Mugabe at home alone at Christmas, reminiscing about happier times with the likes of Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein and Idi Amin. According to Brozin, this commercial “generated 2.5million hits on YouTube in no time”.
Nando’s has also succeeded because it has focused on the basics – not just the chicken and peri-peri sauce, but its people and values. It has then let its customers do the talking.
As Brozin puts it, Nando’s “is an inside outside brand”. “If you look after your people, they look after the customer who looks after the bank manager,” he said during the closing keynote speech at the recently held London Business School Africa conference. “It’s a people business. Although we sell chicken, it’s the passion of the people that makes the business.” Unsurprising, in 2010, Nando’s was named by the Sunday Times as the best large company to work for.
What impressed me most about what I heard from Brozin was the commitment of Nando’s to promoting South Africa and South African art in investing in projects that resonate with the soul of the brand”.
Major breakthrough
in 2002, Nando's started a project to put South African Art on the walls of their restaurant. In the process, Nando's has become, perhaps, the world's largest art gallery with an art collection that includes more than 500 pieces. The company employs a curator who acquires these art pieces across different genres from undiscovered, emerging and established artists.It has a particular emphasis on young emerging artists.
According to the company website, 'Nando's support "has enabled many individuals to focus full-time on their art and, as a result, a growing number have gone on to become established artists." Ghanaian artists might kill for such an opportunity. I hope Ghana's Brozin's will emerge soon.
According to Brozin: "We believe that chicken tastes better when you have art on the wall." As a collector of African art myself I couldn't agree more. Food simply tastes better when you have art on the wall. I recommend you try it next time and send me your thoughts on a postcard!