Nando's new flagship restaurant on Queen St, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Nando's new flagship restaurant on Queen St, Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Nando's fans will have something to celebrate after the spicy chicken chain confirmed it was looking to invest a significant amount of money in renewing its presence in the New Zealand market.
In the last year, Nando's has closed six of its restaurants citing a franchise agreement breach and sparkingspeculation that the chain might be leaving New Zealand for good, but Nando's New Zealand chief executive Justin Scotti said this was not the case.
"We recognise that the brand has slipped in New Zealand compared to what we're doing in the rest of the world," Scotti said.
"We have 26 restaurants in New Zealand and our intention is to grow that number in the next three to five years and next year, depending on site availability, we'd be hoping to open another three. What you'll see is a shift in the quality of the restaurants and how they look - it's a significant lift in standards."
Scotti said the company had become aware that the master franchise partner who had previously operated the New Zealand branch had failed to adequately invest in the business, with Nando's global shareholders repurchasing the franchise rights for New Zealand in May 2014.
He would not confirm how much the business was planning to spend on the revamp of its restaurants but said the rights purchase and cost of renovation would be "significant".
"Clearly its a significant investment," Scotti said. "Most of our efforts next year will be on renovating the existing footprint and getting all the restaurants up to a certain level and then continuing to grow the brand."
Nando's opened its flagship store on Queen Street last month and has already begun renovations on its Henderson restaurant last week, with the Wairau Park restaurant set to undergo a revamp before Christmas. Scotti said he hoped to have several of the major outlets finished by next year.
