HUMAN RESOURCES 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, color, 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 incentive 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.

 
OPERATIONS DIVISION

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:

People Development

  • Create career opportunities and promote from within.
  • Targeted Annual KPI setting – Quarterly reviews for all Area and Regional Managers.
  • Monthly financial and operational reviews.

Sales Growth & Profit Growth

  • 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.
  • Launching additional online 3rd party channel partnerships and launching our own dedicated e-commerce platform.
  • Roll-out of The Chop Box Brand.

Operational Excellence

  • 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.
PROPERTY DEVELOPMENT & FRANCHISING DIVISION

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 25 states across Nigeria.
  • 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.
  • 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.
SUPPLY CHAIN DIVISION

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 quality and uniformity in products
  • 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.

SHARED SERVICES DIVISION

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