SECRET TO SUCCESS
The company’s three-pronged strategy has also helped Just Falafel achieve success. Malas explains: “I think the first thing that worked was the food category itself — today, no matter how wide our competition is, we are the number one in the world in our category because no one took the falafel and adapted it and franchised it and innovated it. We chose the right food category, and it put us at the forefront of the game in that particular food category globally.
“The second thing is I think our communication was extremely efficient and effective. As early adopters of digital media, we were able to benefit and take advantage to impose our brand across the digital world in a very effective way.”
The fact that Just Falafel is one of the savviest brands on social media is no secret. The company has used Facebook extensively — from marketing its new outlets and locations, to attracting franchisees through a dedicated tab on its Facebook page. The brand’s smart use of the social networking platform also led to Facebook conducting a case study on how businesses can use the website to attract investors.
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“The third thing that went right for us was we launched our concept at a time when there was a global credit crunch so people were not interested to talk about stocks and bonds, and nobody was talking about investing in a new concept... and it’s not common for a franchise to come out of the region as well.
“So too many things went right, and I think we had the right team in place to take it to the next level. We invested in people and continuously try to invest in those who will take this brand and really elevate it and take it to the next level,” adds Malas.
Location was also a key factor that helped establish the brand in the market early on. While Just Falafel originally started in mall food courts, it eventually ventured out to commercial and residential areas such as Dubai’s Business Bay and Jumeirah Lakes Towers.
“We have stores in residential areas, in business districts; we are all over the place, but we still have very few stores compared to our competitors. In the UAE we operate 18 stores, and our competitors operate more than 100 stores... that’s why we see growth for ourselves in the UAE market as well because we are under-represented,” he asserts.
Furthermore, Just Falafel is also now looking at running more propriety stores in the city while it continues increasing its presence in the United Arab Emirates.
“We own two stores today and now we want to go back to owning stores because we feel there is great value in store ownership and we’d like to have some ourselves as much as our franchisees. So that’s why I see high growth in the UAE because we will be developing as well. We are excited, we love the market, we know it quite well, and we are looking to continuously innovate.”
The number of stores under development has meant that Just Falafel has to grow its workforce. “In terms of recruitment, we are probably doubling the number of people that work under the brand. Today, Just Falafel has around 700 people working under the brand, and that will potentially double over the next six to 12 months,” reveals Malas.
The company recently launched a new recruitment campaign called “Would you like to work with me?” which uses social media to attract potential employees. The campaign attracted over 200,000 views within a few days of its launch, and according to a recent statement by the company, Just Falafel receives close to 100 applications per day.
While the franchisor is helping to attract staff to the company, the responsibility, as always, is on the owner to recruit the right talent for each store, with Just Falafel contributing to the training element.
TEETHING PROBLEMS
For a business this successful, it’s easy to forget that Just Falafel has been on the market for just over five years now, and with so many new openings and almost 200 outlets in the pipeline around the world — all in a relatively short span of three years — it can’t be an easy task dealing with so many different owners and adapting to different regions.
“We have so many challenges everyday; there are never enough hours in the day to deal with what we have on our plate. We expect every day to have things and every day something comes up because we are opening a store with a different partner, in a different country, in a different currency, in a different language, in a different supply chain, with a different method of communication, in a different culture... and multiply this by 20 for a company our size, and you will understand that we are still building this; we are trying to streamline everything, so it’s never-ending,” Malas laughs.
Working with different owners and suppliers hasn’t been easy for the company either, he admits, claiming that the company’s rapid expansion is sometimes difficult to keep up with.
“We are still learning how to manage a business. At this stage of the game, our business remains quite fragmented because we are growing globally in a very thin way. I’ve learned a lot of lessons along the way but despite that, there is nothing that I would do differently today.
“Knowing all the mistakes we’ve made over the past couple of years, whether it’s the choice of a location, or a particular market, choosing a point of sales system, supplier, franchisees, employees — we’ve made mistakes across everything that we have done and that’s why we are more confident now about the future and we think we will make fewer errors than we have over the last few years when the brand was still young and extremely thin,” he says candidly.
MENTORING ENTREPRENEURS
When Malas is not busy running a global F&B franchise, he spends his time as a mentor and speaker at various industry conferences, championing entrepreneurship in the region.
“For us to prevail as a brand, we have to change the acceptance of entrepreneurs in the region. I am a big supporter of people who are doing start-ups,” says Malas, who recently helped crowd-fund an Arabic content website Ekeif.com through crowdsourcing website Eureka.
“I think going forward I would like to invest more and more in start-ups; young entrepreneurs who are not scared to go out and try to excel and do new things. And I think now is the time... in two or three years when all the scepticism is gone and everyone wants to do the same, it will be too late for people to make money. So now is the best time for people to invest in start-ups in the region,” he urges.
“I’d be less excited to consider brands that have been here for 20 years and have only grown to 50-100 stores. I’m more excited by younger brands that are single-store who are very entrepreneurial, very dynamic, because there are a lot of people who have done very well for themselves at a regional level and are within their comfort zone and are not willing to take up that risk. Anybody can go anywhere, so it depends on how entrepreneurial you are. There is no excuse not to grow your company,” he concludes.
Local brands to watch
- Taqado — The home-grown Mexican brand is looking to open several more outlets across the UAE over the next year.
- Moti Roti — This pop-up Indian takeaway serves healthy, fresh, and traditional wraps and recently set up its third food station in Dubai.
- Man’oushe Street — Another Arabic street food concept that’s eyeing at least 200% sales growth by next year.
- Chez Sushi — The home-grown sushi bar has already opened its first international franchise outlet in Oman.
- Bateel — The brand has grown from a dates and chocolate retailer to incorporate a café menu, and recently began stocking its products at Harrod’s in London.
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