Global franchise deepens footprint in Nigeria with new outlet

…Assures of quality products, services

Multinational quick service restaurant, Burger King has reiterated its commitment to deliver quality products and services to Nigerians with nonstop thrilling experiences.

The Group Managing Director of the company, Antoine Zammarieh, gave the assurance during the opening of the American fast-food chain’s third outlet in Festival town (Festac), Amuwo-Odofin area of Lagos.

It needs be noted that from its first outlet opening in Victoria Island, Lagos last year November, and a follow up with Yaba outlet in December, Burger King has continued to deliver nonstop thrilling experiences to Nigerians with its game changing quality flame-grilled burgers, signature recipes, and affordable prices.

Zammarieh said: “Burger King has been on the look for the Nigerian market for the past 10 years. We just couldn’t get the right partner to open. This is the first really international burger company coming into Nigeria and we are sure it will be a successful one because we are assuring Nigerians of the best, and only the best.”

“We take the sourcing of our products carefully; the sourcing of the product is the most important, we don’t cut corners. All our ingredients, home and abroad, and across all our stores have to be the same. The meat and every other ingredient have to be the same, cooked the same way. And we also train our staff to ensure quality control.

“So before we employ somebody, we train them for about two to three months. First training, then training on the job, and then we certify them. Once they are certified to be crew members or managers or access to managers, then we are confident that they can manage a store. Unless they are certified, we cannot allow them to manage a store,” he added.

Further affirming the company’s position to ensure standardisation of procedures across all its outlets and expand its footprints across multiple locations in Nigeria, the Training Coordinator and Quality Assurance Manager, Bukunolami Adeosun, said the food chain company has established standards and specifications to keep things in place.

“Before we started, we sent out our chefs to Lebanon for training. These chefs are the managers that will be managing each store that we have opened. And when they came back, they were able to train the rest of the team members.

Before you start as a crew member, you will also undergo some training for a two month period. These trainings include how to make the burgers, customer service, amongst other things. So whether you go to Lekki, or V.I, Yaba, or Gbagada, you can be rest assured that the quality of all our offerings remains the same, undiluted,” she said.

Speaking on Coca-Cola’s partnership with the company in Nigeria, Director, Key Accounts Business, Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company, Abdul Basit Qureshi, said there is a lot of synergy between the two brands.

His words: “We are the official drink partner for Burger King in Nigeria. Burger King is an American company, and Coca-Cola is also an American company from a background point of view, and we also have a very long heritage in Nigeria as well, because Coca-Cola started operations in Nigeria in 1951.

“So since we have an historic partnership with Burger King in other international markets, it was quite exciting for us when we heard about the partnership coming along into Nigeria. It’s been almost a year now, and we are still going strong.”

On her part, Marketing Coordinator, Burger King Buzugbe Victoria, said the fast food chain will not relent on its promise to continue to deliver high quality burgers to Nigerians. She added that the company will also expand its menu to offer Nigerians more savoury options.

Founded in 1954, the Burger King brand is the second largest fast food hamburger chain in the world. The Burger King system operates more than 18,600 locations in more than 100 countries. Almost 100 percent of Burger King restaurants are owned and operated by independent franchisees.