Nando's Malaysia

October 15, 2019

MAC CHUNG LYNN MAkes Nando's a Huge Success in Malaysia

The lady who made Nando’s Malaysia a household name is an architect turned entrepreneur called Mac Chung Lynn, Group CEO of Nando’s Malaysia & Singapore. The idea of bringing Nando’s to Malaysia came from her father who fell in love with the delicious taste of this flame-grilled South African chicken dish when he visited Chung Lynn in London and dined at a Nando’s outlet. It was not Mac’s intention to run a restaurant business but with her father’s encouragement, she changed her profession from an architect to a businesswoman. She has no regrets she said. The company that holds the Master Franchise for Nando’s Malaysia is Nando’s Chickenland Malaysia Sdn Bhd. Mac opened the first Nando’s outlet in Jalan Telawi Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur on 29 June 1998.  It was subsequently moved to Bangsar Village. Today under her smart management of the franchise, there are now more than 61 outlets throughout Malaysia. The F&B business is no child’s play. Mac’s parting words in an interview about her success were: “It is a tough world; unless you are ready to give up your weekends and nights for the first few years, do not get involved.”

THE NANDO’S STORY

The story goes like this – in 1987, two friends – Robert Brozin and Fernando Duarte went into a Johannesburg restaurant called Chickenland. The chicken there was the best flame-grilled chicken they had ever eaten. They negotiated to buy up the joint and renamed it Nando’s after Fernando, a Portugese national. It is the peri-peri sauce generously basted over the grilled chicken that had made all the difference. Peri peri is the African bird’s eye chilli (like our cili padi) which Portugese explorers to Africa discovered as a spice that “puts fire in their bellies and ignited passion in their souls”.  A unique peri peri sauce was created that became the secret behind the popularity of the Nando’s chicken all over the world.

In every business story there is the funding that helps propel the business to a global level. For Nando’s to have 1,100 locations in 22 countries, the two friends had an original backer in Dick Enthoven, an insurance magnate in South Africa. The Enthoven family provided private capital and significant business know-how to grow Nando’s international business according to a Bloomberg report.

FRANCHISING

Nando’s Chickenland Malaysia Sdn Bhd owns and operates the Nando’s outlets in Malaysia.