YUM ! ( PIZZA HUT )
strong working relationships .
“ We are an almost entirely franchised organisation across the African continent – we ultimately rely on working with local franchise partners to develop our brand ,” he says . “ We guide our partners from our Restaurant Support Centre and help our franchisees in their dayto-day operations and growth .
“ As an entity coming into a country , it ’ s very easy to try and establish a business without fully understanding the inner workings of that country . We ’ ve found that our brands have been at their most successful when they have a really strong local operator to partner with , who knows how commerce works within that country and also understands the African trading environment .”
That role of a foreign , global brand setting foot into the African continent and trying to cement itself as a leader , brings with it a sense of responsibility .
Pizza Hut , provides significant working opportunities to local people and extensive training programmes . As a business , it ’ s entirely focused on people .
This is something that is close to Davenport ’ s heart .
“ We do put a massive amount of emphasis on generating and propagating our culture . And as part of that culture , training and looking after our people is at the heart of it ,” he says .
“ As a company we recognise hard work and we believe that positive reinforcement and recognition will encourage people to continue doing the right thing and obviously continue the growth of the Pizza Hut brand as well . The face of our brand is in fact the many incredible team members operating throughout our restaurants . If we accelerate a positive culture built around respect , recognition and passion for our brand our customers will feel the love too .”
But it ’ s not just growing an internal culture . Pizza Hut is a strong ambassador for empowering the local community . Through an initiative called A Slice of Africa , a number of staff members will embark on a journey to visit a Pizza Hut store in every country across its entire African footprint and deliver Red
108 April 2018