The ambience at the Domino Pizza store was animated as personnel clad in blue polo shirts were excitedly attending to swarming customers.
One could see the tiredness and anxiety on the faces of the servers as they had to contend with energetically playful kids who clutched onto their ice screams.
The sun that slanted through the stutters mixed with the sweet aroma from the kitchen to give the room an invigorating illumination sooth the nerves of customers who were listening to cool music.
Domino’s Pizza, a subsidiary of Eat ’N Go is an American company which came into Nigeria in 2012 with just two branches. And now it has 90 branches which comprises of 43 Domino’s pizza stores, 39 cold stone creamery and 8 pinkberry gourmet frozen yoghurt stores.
While the economy has been growing sluggishly since the country tipped into its first recession in 25 years in 2015, a young population that crave for consumption is an upside for quick service restaurant operators.
Eat and Go Restaurants have come to the realization that Nigerians love spicy food and this accounts for why the company is continuously introducing variety of snacks.
But experts fret Domino Pizza may not be able to maintain these high standards because the likes of Mr. Biggs and other fast food giants who had controlled the Nigerian market over a decade ago are struggling for their lives.
Around 1986, United Africa Company of Nigeria (UACN) foods introduced Mr. Biggs with a view to providing a cool place where hard working people could relax during lunch time while enjoying their snacks. The franchise kicked the ground rolling as it became a household name among Nigerians. Families and friends visit the place after Sunday service.
The chain witnessed rapid expansion after becoming one of the first Nigerian companies to sell franchises to investors, with Mr. Bigg’s outlets established in about 170 locations in Nigeria, including the country’s first drive-through restaurant, with other four locations in Ghana.
However, Mr. Biggs outlets have shrunk while parent company UACN has shut outlets across the country, sighting harsh operating environment and poor management for the strategic decision.
Experts have disagreed with the management of UACN on the aforementioned reasons saying that the decision of the consumer goods giant to go into franchise was a colossal mistake since the Nigerian market wasn’t ready for such a model.
These franchisees are notorious for poor services as quality of food deteriorated while the environment is increasingly becoming insalubrious. The infrastructure decay is so endemic that toilets have no water to flush.
An industry expert who spoke to BusinessDay on the condition of anonymity said unbridled corruption and poor management skills is responsible for floundering performance of quick service restaurant operators.
Another QSR grasping for breath is Tantalizer, the only fast food company quoted on the floor of the bourse. It also started operations on a sound footing before capitulating to huge operating expenses, receding sales and spiralling debt.
Tantalizers opened its first location in Festac Town, Lagos, in 1997. They were known for their hamburgers initially but became a top name for all things fast food all over the country. Tantalizers still has active branches.
The economic situation have forced a lot people to cook at home, and high unemployment rate means only few have money in their pockets to hit the fast food joints.
The World Bank has said that the Nigerian economy has been slipping since 1995 and this continued till 2018.
While gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 2.38 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018 from 2.10 the corresponding period of 2017, the growth rate is lower than the 7.50 percent recorded over a decade ago.
BALA AUGIE AND BUNMI BAILEY
