John Nelson, current operations director at Nando’s, is to become the chief executive of MOD Pizza UK, the Sir Charles Dunstone-backed venture, which plans to open its first site here next year.
Nelson, who has been operations director at Nando’s since January 2011 and accountable for over 350 restaurants, will be charged with overseeing the growth and the development of the fast-casual pizza concept.
Nelson, who will officially join MOD on 5 January, will work closely with Dunstone and his long-standing business partner, Roger Taylor, ahead of MOD UK debut.
“We are thrilled to be welcoming John to the MOD Pizza family. His track record of developing culture-lead companies will be of tremendous value to MOD Pizza as we build a strong infrastructure ahead of entering the UK market,” said Scott Svenson, co-founder and chief executive of MOD Pizza. “John’s rich UK experience and respect for the MOD Pizza mission to create opportunities for growth and giving back, provides us with a true ambassador to lead us to success in the UK. We look forward to working closely with him to bringing MOD Pizza and the MOD Squad culture to The UK in the coming year.”
At Nando’s, Nelson, who has over 20 years of experience developing restaurant and retail concepts in the UK, oversaw operations, strategy execution, team development and new restaurant openings.
Prior to Nando’s, he held several leadership positions for one of Europe’s largest consumer electronics retailers, Dixons Stores Group (formerly Curry’s), including central operations director, divisional director and customer operations manager.
He said: “I am really excited to be joining such a high growth brand and look forward to working closely with the MOD Pizza team to shape and drive our entrance into the UK market.
“When I started with Nando’s, I was really attracted to the opportunity to be part of and grow a restaurant concept that put emphasis on its people, both the team internally and broader community. The chance to introduce MOD Pizza internationally reminds me of that culture and growth potential, and I see tremendous runway for the brand in the UK market. I’m eager to open the doors of our first location next year to show UK pizza fans what the buzz surrounding this great brand is all about.”
Founded in 2008 by entrepreneurs Scott and Ally Svenson, MOD currently operates 83 sites across 12 states in the US.
Yesterday, M&C revealed that the group had appointed Rob Murray, formerly group financial controller at Carphone Warehouse, as its UK finance director.
It is currently working on securing its first site here, with locations in London and Milton Keynes thought to be under consideration at present.
Earlier this year, MOD signed a joint venture with Dunstone’s Freston Venture vehicle. Freston has already backed the rapid rollout of Five Guys to 38 sites in the UK in just over two years.
Comment by M&C editor Mark Wingett
If you were to pick one brand to take learnings from in how to be successful, and continually successful at that, in the UK eating-out market, few would look further than Nando’s. Certainly Sir Charles Dunstone and his associates have taken note of the Capricorn Ventures-backed group’s success.
Three years ago, Five Guys UK managing director John Eckbert used the brand as an example of what his own concept could aspire to in the UK in terms of expansion potential, the demographic it would look to target and the loyalty it hoped to inspire. Sat next to him that day was Marcel Khan, who spent over eight years as a regional managing director at Nando’s. Khan has been instrumental in developing the culture at Five Guys as it has looked to expand at breakneck speed. Currently standing at 38 sites, with a further two to open before the year end, it already has in place a good portion of the 25 to 30 sites it hopes to open here in 2016. It is also set to make its debut in France next year.
At the time, Eckbert spoke of matching the then c270-strong Nando’s estate and even targeting operating 400 units in the country. He has since pulled that target back to a still-impressive-if-reached 175-200 locations. MOD Pizza has similar ambitions and has now also tapped into the Nando’s talent bank with the appointment of John Nelson as its UK chief executive.
Earlier this year, co-founder Scott Svenson told M&C that there is an opportunity for the brand to grow to “hundreds of stores” in the UK, as it targeted “the same consumer base and trading areas as Nando’s”.
Svenson said that the company would ideally like to test the group’s model across a number of different locations over the first two years in the UK, before ramping up its expansion rate. He said: “I think the scale and potential for MOD in the UK, is equal if not potentially greater than that of Five Guys. But only the passage of time will prove me right on that point.”
Unsurprisingly the same property team used by Five Guys at the start of its expansion here is now working hard to make sure MOD gets off to a flying start, with locations in London and the South East being explored. Five Guys has not been afraid to pay significant premiums to provide its rollout with the momentum when required, and continues to flex its muscles when needed on strategic sites. It would be a surprise if MOD didn’t take the same approach.
When Five Guys arrived here, the better burger market was a lot further in to its lifecycle than the fledgling better pizza segment. Svenson has namechecked Pizza Pilgrims as one of the new breed he has been impressed with and noted that PizzaExpress is a “fabulous brand”. However, I would imagine it will be the David Page-backed Franco Manca that will prove his concept’s main rival as the category matures, certainly before further US-based brands follow MOD across the Atlantic.
So what does the future look like for MOD? I will leave that to Svenson: “In a word hectic. The pace of our growth, while aggressive, reflects the fact that our sector is developing very quickly in the US and we believe there is a first mover advantage to be in key markets. Like in the US, I believe there is an opportunity to modernise the pizza industry here.” Nelson’s appointment feels like a key part in providing the foundations to make good on that belief.
