Eat’N’Go set to build a manufacturing facility in Lagos
Chief Executive Officer of Eat‘N’Go, Mr. Patrick McMichael, has disclosed that his company is set to build a new manufacturing facility in Lagos, the economic capital of the country before the year ends. The firm is a wholly Nigerian Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) brand and the leading franchisee for world-class food brands, Domino’s Pizza, Cold Stone Creamery and Pinkberry Gourmet Frozen Yoghurt.
He made the disclosure as a guest on the MARKETING EDGE live chat on Instagram recently, adding that his company was also gearing up to opening a very big warehouse in the city.
These positive developments, he said, were indicative of both the very strong belief of his company in Nigeria and the fact that the country still offers a lot of growth opportunities for businesses despite its various challenges.
According to McMichael, Nigeria’s population remains a big plus for the country; and this, he said, explains why in the QSR industry, for instance, there are numerous homegrown brands and many international brands all competing and thriving at varying degrees.
In his words: “Once you get your business model in place and you build it to stand, there are a lot of opportunities for growth in Nigeria, even though there’ll be challenges along the way.”
While admitting that the COVID-19 pandemic has made a mess of the business projections for this year across all sectors, the QSR subsector inclusive, McMichael reflected on how his company had been able to cope, saying, “We had to change the business very dramatically and very quickly. Our staff had to learn how to operate the business in a completely different way. Everybody is learning. Nobody could have predicted where we are at this time.”
He added: “There has been a big slowdown in sales in the last four months. It’s not been business as usual. We are beginning to see some growth return to the business, but it is slow. Customers are still being careful and safety conscious.
“What we are doing at this time is to ensure the safety of our staff and our customers. The best any QSR can do at the moment is to ensure the safety of both the team and the customers and that is what we are focusing on at the moment. The customer has to trust you as a business and that’s really where our focus is.”
While x-raying the new habits developed by Nigerians as a fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic towards patronizing QSR shops across the nation, the Eat’N’Go boss further stated: “To a large degree, people now want to stay at home. They wouldn’t want to go to public places where there’ll be large number of people. Customers are opting for delivery across the business and, as such, we have seen a substantial growth in our delivery business.”
Continuing, he said: “We are trying to create that safe situation where customers can have our products delivered to their homes and enjoy our products. We don’t see that changing any time soon. We have hired numerous delivery riders to ensure that we have a 25-minute delivery guarantee. It’s been a big focus on the safety and delivery sides of the business.”
The new normal, according to McMichael, had meant a shift in revenue stream for the foremost QSR Company. “There’s a massive shift in revenue streams. Not much of dining now but delivery. We’ve had to buy more delivery vans and bikes; we have even had to bring Jumia on to our delivery services.”
The theme of the live chat was “Post COVID-19 Business Ecosystem: Imperatives for Quick Service Restaurant Operations”.
RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Comment
No comments found.