Pizza Hut Nigeria: Achieving breakthrough results through collaboration and diversity...

After a week of turbulence across the African continent, its been humbling to spend time in Nigeria with our Marathon Restaurant Group partners and important to be reflective of the progress of our businesses. In a week which experienced a few days of xenophobic attacks, political posturing and strained relationships between RSA and Nigeria, it was a nervous time to be on the ground visiting our three restaurants in Lagos - but thankfully a safe and overwhelmingly inspiring one.

Looking back at how far we have come, a diverse Pizza Hut Africa team including representation from South Africa, Australia, Malawi, Zimbabwe led by a Brit have supported the launch of our brand by partnering with a similarly diverse franchisee, including South Africans, Nigerians and Jordanians led by an Auzzie. An incredibly powerful partnership which is now yielding real results.

Nigeria is an hugely complex place to do business. The myriad of controls and administrative procedures needing to be followed, stability of electricity supply and infrastructure, intense QSR competition along with potential exposure to corruption make this a melting pot of challenges - the faint of heart need not apply.

But our food and restaurants are fantastic and spotlessly clean. Our team members are inspiring, full of energy (as just seems to be standard in Nigeria) and hungry to learn. Our businesses are stabilizing and moving into growth mode. The inspiring energetic leadership by Tony Ozanne is just as infectious as ever - who else in our Pizza Hut world is more capable and qualified than him to grow a business such as this - he is truly a unique leader, a tenacious growth mindset business builder and great friend.

Sitting on the plane to Northern Nigeria, it was a perfect moment to reflect on how proud I am of what we have managed to achieve in partnership, and this was the beginning of something really quite special. 

And I further concluded this wouldn’t have been achievable without the spectacular Nigerian team we have on the ground, but more importantly the power of collaborative thought and actions of a multi-cultural and multi-talented team supporting them.....imagine how much more could be achieved in this world if we all just got along with each other a little better?