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COMPANY PROFILE
Food Concepts Plc was incorporated on 6 December 1999 as Food Concepts & Entertainment Limited and commenced operations in 2000. The Company was converted from a Private Limited Liability Company into a Public Limited Liability Company and the Company’s name was subsequently changed to Food Concepts Plc. by a Special Resolution dated 10 May 2009.
Following its incorporation, Food Concepts secured franchises from reputable South African Quick Service Restaurant operators to manage and operate their brands in Nigeria. The Company subsequently acquired and developed other Brands, such as, Chicken Republic, PieXpress, Butterfield, Yum Yum and The Chop Box.
Following a corporate restructuring and divestment, the Company now owns and operates the Chicken Republic, PieXpress and The Chop Box brands as its proprietary food brands.
Chicken Republic is currently trading in 129 locations across Nigeria and Ghana and has plans in place to operate 430 stores by the end of 2024.
PieXpress began trading in 2019 and we presently operate 48 stores in Nigeria, with plans in place to operate 247 PieXpress units by the end of 2024.
We recently launched our new brand, The Chop Box and presently have one outlet in Lagos.
Our Vision:
“To be the most loved quick service restaurant and baked goods brands across West Africa”
Our Mission:
“To remain relevant as we stretch our limits to go above and beyond to deliver excellent customer experiences, great tasting products and every day affordable value.”
OUR VALUES
“People Capability Always” is a driving force in our business. On this basis, our Human Resources Division and purpose-built training centres are designed to train, upskill, and develop the capability of every person that we employ on an ongoing basis.
We also recognise and reward our people with competitive salaries and various incentive programmes.
We hold Staff Forum Meetings, during which Staff Representatives from across the business get the opportunity to meet to discuss concerns and make suggestions to improve the business, as well as receive updates on business performance. This provides the business with valuable feedback on ways to improve operations and the working lives of our employees.
We also hold quarterly communication meetings, where managers across the business receive updates on business performance and get the opportunity to ask the Executive’s questions.
Our ambitious expansion plans, makes the need to develop our team greater than ever before. Going forward, we will focus on developing more managers, as well as enhancing their managerial and leadership skills to ensure additional value across the business.
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LOVEWe are passionate, relevant, caring, respectful and committed. |
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OWNERSHIPWe act with integrity and take pride in ourselves, our company and country. |
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VALUEWe add value to everyone and in everything we do. |
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EXECUTIONExecution is what we do best. |
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DRIVEWe take initiative and push forward to exceed expectations and achieve our goals. |
OPERATIONAL FRAMEWORK
OUR DIVISIONS
Human Resources Division
Operations Division
Property Development & Franchising
Supply Chain Division
Shared Services Division
People Capability Always is based on the idea that you don’t build a business, you build people and people build the business. This is the ideology of the Human Resources Department, working together with the divisions, to actualise the objectives and goals of the organisation. On this basis, we train, develop talent, recognise and reward our people, whilst enriching their lives and growing our business in the process.
Our Recruitment Philosophy
Food Concepts is committed to creating a diverse environment across our business and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and promotion without regard to race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability or age.
Recognition & Reward
As the business grows, we continually seek opportunities to reward our people for their contribution and commitment. We pay our staff competitive salaries and offer various incentives programmes. For those working in revenue generating divisions, your reward is in your hands! The harder you work towards delivering your targets the more you earn. We also have a Product of the Month incentive, which is paid to store employees who have exceeded their sales targets, as well as, an employee of the month incentive, which is based on a peer-to-peer nomination system. Each year, all employees across divisions have the opportunity to earn a performance bonus, which is based on a combination of company, division and individual performance.
Training & Development
At Food Concepts, all new employees, regardless of their position in the organisation, start their induction at the heartbeat of our business…in our stores.
We have state-of-the-art training centres, through which we have trained over 3 000 employees. To support our aggressive expansion plans and our commitment to grow talent internally, we have implemented the OMEGA Development Program. This program has been instrumental in training and developing our people to ensure they are well prepared for their career growth and promotion into management roles.
Our world of innovation places great value in recruiting, retaining, developing and rewarding the highly talented individuals who take charge of their career whilst we provide the enabling environment to nurture it.
Our Operations Division is responsible for the daily operations of our Chicken Republic, PieXpress and The Chop Box Brands. This division is focused on driving sustainable, year-on-year profitability by growing top-line sales and managing our operational expenses. Our key focus is to build strong people capability that enables an enhanced customer experience, with great quality food at everyday affordable prices. We are heavily focused on driving speed of service and creating an environment that is clean, fresh, well-lit and hygienic, whilst applying a disciplined approach to delivering operational excellence.
We have a clear focus on our key performance indicators:
- Create career opportunities and promote from within
- Targeted Annual KPI setting – Quarterly reviews for all Area and Regional Managers
- Monthly financial and operational reviews
- Grow transactions, ticket average and peak time sales through accurate sales forecasting, speed of service, hospitality and upselling initiatives
- Grow our online sales through ensuring speed or service and product availability
- Launch additional online 3rd party channel partnerships and our own dedicated e-commerce platform
- Roll-out of The Chop Box Brand
- Improve our speed and quality of service
- Drive back-of-house efficiencies
- Relentless focus on operational audit scores across all Brands
- Process and discipline around operating costs through tight controls and accountability.
People Development
Sales Growth & Profit Growth
Operational Excellence
Our Property Development & Franchising division continues to grow, with the addition of new franchise stores, the opening of new company stores and the upgrading and maintenance of existing stores. We continue to build our infrastructure to support the business and our Brands with the addition of 5 new pie production and 3 warehouse facilities.
All these activities contribute to our performance and enhance stakeholder experience for franchisees, employees, partners and shareholders alike.
We have been able to effectively manage our setup costs, despite the devaluation of the Naira and the harsh economic conditions. Among others, bulk purchase of key assets has allowed us to negotiate lucrative discounts, which has contributed to greater returns on investments.
We have and will continue to grow the capacity of both people and other resources within this division to ensure a solid, pre-emptive, responsive and effective strategic implementation plan that delivers ROI.
Our strategic focus areas moving forward include:
- Ensuring a controlling share of the number of stores in major cities and increase our footprint across Nigeria. Our Brands are now represented in 22 states across Nigeria.
- Master Franchise Agreements – find franchisees for other West African countries aside from Nigeria & Ghana
- Develop a franchise strategy for PieXpress – this is a concept that will be made affordable for owner operators to manage a structured business model with less capital requirement than that of a Chicken Republic.
- Develop Master Franchisees and drive franchise growth across Nigeria and West Africa.
- Franchise Support – support franchisees with training and performance reviews, operational excellence, marketing activities and audits.
- Develop a franchise strategy for PieXpress, this is a concept that will be made affordable for more owner operators to be able to manage a structured business model with less capital requirement than that of a Chicken Republic.
- Test-out our first Gas generator in a CR store – environmentally friendly and long-term cost effective. Reducing diesel consumptions to zero.
- Solar power solutions – find the right partners to establish energy saving solutions for both the PX and the recent addition to the family, ‘The Chop Box’.
- Property Management is still key to our business. We will continue to purchase were possible and we will also continue to ensure that we only enter strict lease agreements to reduce the risk of habitual increases in lease terms.
- Strategic purchasing – fine tune the modalities of Bulk Purchases with Key Suppliers securing key/quality assets, whilst taking advantage of this strategy to stem incessant price increases due to currency depreciation.
- Effective Stakeholder Communication with project meetings, project tracker spreadsheet and action logging.
The Supply Chain Division (SCD) continues to grow and support the business by catering for the increased demand and delivery of great tasting, high quality products to our stores “On Time in Full”. Key activities that fall under SCD include:
Procurement
The Procurement function is centralised and is responsible for the sourcing and purchasing of all food and packaging products, equipment and other restaurant supplies. The mission of the unit is to provide the “lowest possible sustainable store-delivered prices” for restaurant products and equipment. To achieve this, the unit leverages on the system’s scale to drive cost savings and effectiveness in its day-to-day function.
We work closely with suppliers to encourage innovation, assure best practices and drive continuous improvement. Leveraging scale, supply chain infrastructure and risk management strategies, the division also collaborates with suppliers towards achieving competitive, predictable food and packaging costs over the long term.
Warehousing and Distribution Unit
The business operates a hub and spoke network model across the country. This reduces transportation costs, improves cycle times and reduces inventory in the restaurants and at the warehouses. Delivery of stock items to the stores are carried out through the deployment of Company-owned fleet and third-party Logistics Service Providers to ensure timely and effective distribution to the stores.
Pie Production Unit
Food Concepts operates 10 strategically positioned pie production facilities around the country. These facilities are set up to satisfy our customers’ needs for fresh and tasty baked products via our Chicken Republic and PieXpress stores, as well as to meet the increasing demand for bulk catering requests.
Central Kitchen
Our Central Kitchen operation in Lagos creates our authentic West African spice blends for all our Chicken Republic stores and Pie Production facilities. Our spices are procured and manufactured locally, and this facility produces all the requirements for our Chicken Republic and PieXpress Brands in Nigeria and Ghana. The Central Kitchen brings to the fore several benefits such as:
- Consistency in product quality and uniformity across all stores
- Convenience
- Larger space
- Equipment and specialised appliances used in production
- Reduction in wastage and labour costs at store level
Our Central Kitchen supports all Chicken Republic and PieXpress stores, both company-owned and franchised. We produce semi-finished and finished items and deliver fresh vegetables to Lagos stores.
The Shared Services Division serves as the bedrock of the organisation as it focuses on the consolidated performance and position of the organisation, its subsidiaries, its associated companies and related entities.
The division provides the requisite support to the business and the other divisions to achieve the overall objective of maximising profitability through sales growth and reduced cost. The division is responsible for driving the overall company strategy summarised in the budgets, forecast and business plans and ensures the monitoring and achievement of the company’s overall strategy.
The Shared Services Division is responsible for raising capital to support the business strategy and growth plans, as well as to ensure the effective management of working capital, which enables smooth operation of the business.
It is also responsible for generating investment income through effective treasury operations and managing of the company’s information technology. The division ensures that proper risk management procedures are in place within the organisation to identify and manage the risks in the business and that policies, controls and procedures are in place to ensure that the organisation’s overall objectives are met.
Shared Services is also responsible for new product development, as well as quality assurance (including both ISO and legal compliance), whilst ensuring that the company’s products are effectively communicated through marketing activities to third parties.
The division comprises the following departments:
Finance
The Finance department is responsible for the following key activities within the organisation:
- Provision of information (Sales, GP, EBITDA and PAT) required to assess the profitability of individual outlets and overall performance of operations, supply chain division, development and franchising as well as all the departments within the organisation.
- Consolidating all departmental dashboards and preparing accurate divisional and consolidated profit or loss accounts for the Group whilst providing clear insights into trends and performance vs budget and prior year.
- Ensuring the timely submission of tax returns and other regulatory filings and payment of amounts due to the respective tax authorities to avoid penalty and sanctions.
- Aiding financial planning through the provision of consolidated daily cash position showing the liquidity position of the Company.
- Enforcing discipline and accountability by tracking lodgement of sales proceeds and escalating variance daily.
- Coordinating monthly inventory count across stores and the organisation escalating exceptions for follow-up actions.
- Raising funds for the business through banks, capital, money markets and direct investors.
- Managing relationships with the company’s banks and other financial institution to ensure adequate support for the company’s operations.
- Generating investment income through sound and effective treasury activities.
- Ensuring the timely payment of vendors and effective working capital management.
- Invoicing of franchisees and customers.
- Preparing and sharing daily, weekly and monthly reports of sales, receivables, payables, cash advances and other key reports.
- Preparing the company’s annual financial statements and monthly management account.
- Working with external auditors on interim and final audits.
- Working with tax authorities, financial advisors and investors on tax audits, due diligence and other ad-hoc reviews.
- Management of the company’s fixed assets, including tagging, verification and asset movement.
- Addressing the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the company.
Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A)
The FP&A department is responsible for the following key activities within the organisation:
- Preparation of annual budgets, five-year business plan and monthly forecasts of the business performance and cashflows.
- Performing investment appraisals for new stores, remodels & new projects.
- Updating the monthly cost of sales and product pricing.
- Preparation of monthly pacesetter report for the Company.
- Preparation of bi-weekly sales mix reports.
- Pricing, scenario analysis and scenario modelling for new product initiatives and special orders.
- Coordinating and tracking of monthly product of the month action & calculating incentive as applicable.
- Preparation of reports on financial analysis & trends.
- Financial analysis support for operations, supply chain division, Ghana, development and franchising as well as all the departments within the organisation.
- Developing key financial analysis templates across the Group to improve efficiency.
- Performing Group valuation, monitoring of share price & earnings per share and assessing acquisition opportunity valuations.
- Performing Group financial modelling and alignment with 5-year plan.
- Preparation of the inputs for the Board and Board committee packs and compiling the inputs from other divisions and departments.
- Engaging in special projects execution and ecommerce monitoring.
Risk, Process & Compliance
The Risk & Compliance department is responsible for the following key activities within the organisation:
- Working with the respective business process owners to ensure that risks within the organisation are identified, tracked in the risk register and managed.
- Developing controls in conjunction with the process owners to response to identified risks.
- Ensuring the documentation of all the business processes within the organisation.
- Conducting walkthrough test with the process owners to ensure that the business processes as documented is reflective of the actual position.
- Developing policies within the organisation in conjunction with the executive management and the board.
- Preparing quarterly risk reports for the board.
- Visiting stores and the respective departments to ensure that their unique risks are tracked and monitored.
- Performing internal control activities to support the business.
- Performing compliance activities to support the business.
Quality & HSE
The Quality & HSE department is responsible for the following key activities within the organisation:
- Enhancement of fire safety risk awareness among all the staff in the Company.
- Ensuring compliance with food regulators including NAFDAC, ISO and other statutory compliance requirements in the food industry.
- Ensuring the annual food safety standard compliance of the key vendors through scheduled annual inspection.
- Ensuring adequate pre–engagement food handlers medical screening as well as periodic food handlers test on all staff in operations and other producing divisions.
- Training operations and other producing division staff on food safety awareness.
- Providing quality, environmental, health and safety support coverage across all stores and departments within the organisation.
- Providing support to other concerned department in ensuring upgrade and compliance to safety requirements in the engagement of vendors.
- Achieving ISO 22000:2018, ISO14001:2015 (Environmental Management), ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational Health and Safety), and ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management System) using an Integrated Management System approach.
- Ensuring cost savings through product and process improvements.
- Engaging in new product development, analysis and testing of the new products.
- Provision of awareness training on critical parameters and tools to aid checking at the stores and department levels.
Administrative Services
The Admin department is responsible for the following key activities within the organisation:
- Ensuring the cleanliness of the office complex (interior and exterior).
- Ensuring that the assets of the organisation are adequately insured.
- Supporting the business travels whilst minimising the travel cost through effective strategies.
- Supporting travelling teams with hotel arrangements whilst minimising hotel costs.
- Monitoring the retirement of cash advances taken by staff for travel.
- Managing the company’s pool cars whilst minimising the vehicle maintenance costs.
- Ensuring adequate provision of security guards to the stores and head office.
- Working with the police and other security agencies to ensure adequate security for the company and its stores.
- Ensuring effective allocation of office space.
- Ensuring the provision of office furniture to create the right working environment.
Legal
The Legal department is responsible for the following key activities within the organisation:
- Reviewing and drafting contracts and agreements whilst protecting the Company’s interests.
- Defending the Company in litigation and minimising litigation costs.
- Engaging in alternative dispute resolution and out of court settlement to minimise litigations.
- Ensuring regulatory compliance, managing regulators and minimising regulatory costs.
- Enforcing agreements and driving the recovery of long outstanding receivables from defaulting partners.
- Protecting the Brand through registration of trademarks and brand rights.
- Providing legal documents to address the requirements of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- Ensuring the perfection of the Company’s Freehold properties.
- Ensuring that Board meetings, Board Committee meetings, AGMs and EGMs are properly planned and effectively carried out.
- Taking minutes of Board and Board Committee meetings.
- Ensuring the preparation and production of the Company’s annual report.
Information Technology
The IT department is responsible for the following key activities within the organisation:
- Ensuring the successful implementation of an ERP system and ensuring that the ERP system meets the objectives of the organisation.
- Ensuring adequate disaster recovery plans for the organisation.
- Providing IT support to stores and the business.
- Ensuring internet connectivity for stores and the business whilst minimising the costs of the internet connectivity.
- Working with the procurement team on the acquisition of IT hardware and software.
- Ensuring a high response rate to issues relating to hard ware and software support.
- Training stores and the business on the use of IT hardware and software.
- Ensuring security of the Company systems through gateways and antivirus systems.
- Maintaining an effective helpdesk system for prompt and effective resolution of issues.
Marketing Department
The Marketing department is responsible for the following key activities within the organisation:
- Strategic brand development for both the Holding Company and all of its consumer brands.
- Development and implementation of brand guidelines (including CI, usage guidelines and brand templates), brand building programmes, brand measurement tools that lead to increased brand equity.
- Development and maintenance of the annual marketing calendar and budget
- Below the Line Marketing including:
- Design and production of all marketing materials
- Activations including flier distribution
- Events and Promotions
- Store level communication
- Interior and exterior store branding
- New store and new product launches
- Local store marketing tool kits and initiatives
- Outdoor & Above the Line:
- Billboards, signage, vehicle branding, etc.
- Radio advertising
- Press advertising, editorial and advertorial
- Digital
- Digital strategy
- Web content, development and management
- Development of content plans and online materials that drive customer engagement
- Development, integration and management of all digital platforms (web, mobile, social, etc.)
- Management and monitoring of online ordering/delivery partners and platforms
- Development and management of strategic brand partnerships
- Consumer research, customer feedback mechanisms and CRM programmes
- Managing customer care line/platform
- Demand creation including bulk orders and sales drive
- Product innovation
- Managing the brand product BOM
- Internal brand engagement
- CSR strategy, as well as, the development and management of CSR programmes
Internal Audit
The Internal Audit department is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve the organisation’s operations. The head of this department reports directly to the Audit Committee of the Board to maintain its independence. The internal audit department is responsible for the following key activities within the organisation:
- Helping the organisation accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control and governance processes.
- Partnering with management on special audit assignments.
- Assisting in assessing and training the internal control and compliance unit.
- Perform independent reviews to add value to the business.
- Assist individual budget/ process owner to achieve their objectives through partnership to identify factors that might significantly upset achievement of objectives and assist in providing mitigants for identified risks.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
In 2019 Food Concepts was awarded ISO22000:2018 Food Safety Management System certification for our Lagos Central Kitchen and Chicken Republic, Ilupeju.
ISO22000:2018 is the latest certification, based on a Food Safety Management System (FSMS) that can be awarded to any organisation in the food chain – from farm to fork.
In 2020, Food Concepts was re-certified for ISO 22000:2018 after a successful surveillance audit by the certification body, and an additional 5 Chicken Republic stores in Lagos were certified to ISO 22000:2018, namely, Opebi, Gbagada, Idimu. Freedom Way and Awolowo 1.
Food Concepts is proud to announce that we were recently awarded ISO Certification in the following standards: ISO14001:2015 (Environmental Management), ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational Health and Safety), and ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management System) using an Integrated Management System approach.
OUR FOOTPRINT
