Nando's

Nando's is a South African casual dining restaurant group originating from the Mozambican–Portuguese community with a Portuguese/Mozambiquan theme. Founded in 1987, Nando's operates about 1,000 outlets in thirty countries on five continents and as of 2012 had sales of $650 million.

Nando's specializes in chicken dishes with either lemon and herb, Mango and Lime, medium, hot, extra hot or extra extra hot Peri-Peri marinades (properly known as Galinha à Africana). In some countries, Nando's has other flavour options like mango and lime or Mediterranean.

History
The restaurant began in 1987 when Portuguese-Mozambican Fernando Duarte along with Robert Brozin bought a restaurant called Chickenland in Rosettenville, southern Johannesburg in South Africa. They renamed the restaurant Nando's, after Duarte.

Food
Nando's specialises in flame-grilled Peri-Peri chicken. The chicken is served in quarters, halves, wholes, and butterfly breasts (UK, Ireland and South Africa only). Nando's also serves burgers, pitas, salads, wings and wraps. In some countries, Nando’s sells chicken livers, Espetada (a large stand with a skewer of chicken breast and grilled peppers) and Cataplana (a chicken and rice dish served in a traditional Portuguese copper dish).

Peri-peri
Peri-peri (piri piri, pili pili), also known as African Bird's Eye chilli, is a variety of Capsicum frutescens widely grown in East and Southern Africa. Nando's products are basted in one of four Peri-Peri flavours. Nando's has published a book about Peri-Peri called Pain and Pleasure – Peri-Peri the contrasts and contradictions of the African Bird's Eye Chilli.

Nando's sauces
Nando's manufactures a range of sauces which are sold in Nando's restaurants and in supermarkets. They include Peri-Peri sauces, marinades, cooking sauces and a Peri-Peri Essence.

Marketing
In 2010, Advertising Age magazine named Nando's as one of the world's top 30 hottest marketing brands.

Malaysia
In Malaysia, Nando's has been established since 1998 and currently, there are 38 restaurants in Malaysia. The latest restaurant opened at Aeons Station 18 Shopping Mall, Ipoh, Perak in April 2012.

Singapore
In Singapore, Nando's opened its first restaurant on 9 May 2010, located at Bugis Junction. By the end of 2010, the brand has opened another 2 restaurants at Tanglin Mall and Plaza Singapura. It had outlets at Tampines Mall, JCube, Star Vista and 112 Katong.

United Kingdom


In 1992, Nando's expanded to the United Kingdom, opening its first restaurant in Ealing, London. As of 10 October 2013, Nando's has 280 restaurants located across the UK, with over 100 of those in London.

In 2009, Nando's UK was awarded Three Stars (highest accolade) in the Best Companies Annual Accreditation Awards – the only entrant in the large companies' category to achieve the three star rating.

Over 50 of the UK's branches serve Halal certified chicken.

Nando's has the largest collection of South African art in the UK, with over 3,000 works displayed in their restaurants.

Republic of Ireland
Nando's opened in the Republic of Ireland from 2006 onawards. Its restaurants can be found in Cork and Dublin.

United States
Nando's has fourteen restaurants in the United States: three in Washington, DC (7th Street NW, 18th Street NW and Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.); eight in Maryland (Annapolis, Baltimore, Silver Spring, Bethesda, Gaithersburg, National Harbor, Gambrills and Hanover); and three in Virginia (Arlington, Old Town Alexandria and Woodbridge).

Canada
Nando's has operated since 1994 in the Canadian market, with stores in the provinces of British Columbia (Vancouver, Coquitlam, Burnaby, Abbotsford, Victoria, Kamloops), Alberta (Calgary) and Ontario (Ottawa).

Nando's shop
Nando's has online web stores in Australia, United Kingdom and the USA. Customers can purchase a range of Nando's branded sauces, sprinkles and apparel. Nando's also sells their range of sauces and sprinkles through major supermarkets.

Australian illegal immigrants advertisement
In Australia, Nando's ran an advertising campaign based around the 2002 political controversy regarding the mandatory detention of illegal immigrants. The detainees had been waging a hunger strike campaign, even resorting to physically sewing their lips closed. Nando's adverts proclaimed that the strikers "decided to unsew their lips after hearing the news that with every Nando's quarter chicken combo, Nando's are giving away an extra quarter chicken free". Melbourne's Sphere Advertising said that the ad was designed to spark controversy, saying that they knew that "there's a section of our audience that's going to be uncomfortable...but we want to evoke a response".

Malema advertisement
During the South African national elections of 2009, Nando's made an advert lampooning African National Congress Youth League then president Julius Malema by using a puppet that resembled him. Malema's lawyers sued Nando's and the original advert was removed. However, an altered version was released, with the puppet's face pixelated and the voice altered. The puppet used in the advert was later sold at auction for R100,000 which was donated to an educational charity.

Last Dictator advertisement
In 2011 Nando's launched a "Last dictators" advert in South Africa. The 60-second commercial shows a sad Robert Mugabe dining alone at Christmas in a large mansion while he reminisces about "happier times" with former dictators, such as playing water tag with Muammar Gaddafi, making snow angels in the sand with Saddam Hussein, singing Karaoke with Mao Zedong, pushing P. W. Botha on a swing set, and riding a tank with Idi Amin in a similar fashion to Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet embracing each other from the movie Titanic while the music from "Those Were the Days" is being played. Musekiwa Kumbula, holder of the Nando's franchise in Zimbabwe, said his group "strongly feels the advertisement is insensitive and in poor taste". The advert also offended Chipangano, a Zimbabwean youth militia loyal to Mugabe, who then demanded an apology from Nando’s, threatened to boycott the South Africa-based chain, and demanded the ad be withdrawn or the restaurant face retribution. Nando's South Africa subsequently withdrew the advert citing threats to its staff in Zimbabwe from a youth group.