KUCHING: Nando’s Chickenland Malaysia Sdn Bhd (Nando’s) hopes to achieve its target of 100 outlets within Malaysia over the next five years as part of its expansion plan.
This follows the official opening of its 76th outlet at AEON Mall Kuching Central on Thursday night.
Nando’s Malaysia chief executive officer Stephen Chew told The Borneo Post that he was optimistic of reaching this target by the end of 2022, and that East Malaysia has offered strong support to its store count, marking 8 per cent in total.
“Without the people’s support, we cannot expand. The fact that we have opened three outlets here in Kuching within a short period of time actually shows the support that we have,” he told The BOrneo Post.
Chew also added his optimism in Sabah where Nando’s has opened three outlets.
Following Nando’s Malaysia’s 20th anniversary this year, Chew reaffirmed their commitment to provide variety in terms of their sauce and promotions.
“We will continue to do more to engage with customers. Out menu is definitely one aspect, the other is through our loyalty app, offering rebates and deals. We will always continue to innovate.”
Commenting on ths recent line of Nando’s signature sauces being made available in retail stores, Chew said the move was timely to tap into market demand.
“We realise that people love Nando’ss sauce – so what we did is to introduce sauces for sale from our stores, or in the market.
“Our chilli called PERi-PERi is to thank for this as it is our heart and our heat and it is truly unique to Nando’s,” he said.
Nando’s grows its peri-peri chillies (also called African red devil pepper) with the help of over 1,400 independent farmers in South Africa.
Each chilli plant produces about 300 chillies which are hand-picked and plucked one at a time. They are then hand-sorted and dried in the African sun.
According to Nando’s, it takes 42,000 chillies to fill one 14kg bag and 25,000 bags are filled every year.
These fiery little wonders are then mixed with onions, oil, herbs, fresh lemons, and garlic to make the signature Nando’s PERi-PERi sauce.