Financial Times

Nando's "special" chicken now in Colombo
By Lenin Amarawickrama
The founders of the latest international restaurant to hit Colombo tried a unique method to check out the Sri Lankan palate and acceptance. "At the Sri Lankan consulate in Johannesburg, we asked visitors there to taste our special chicken and recorded their reaction. It was very encouraging," said Fernando Duarte, Nando's chairman and founder.

The South African-based restaurant chain last week opened its first outlet in Sri Lanka providing food connoisseurs with an opportunity to taste Nando's chicken in Portuguese flavor with South African Peri Peri chili sauce.

The first visitors to the new restaurant at the Crescat Boulevard were the South African cricketers currently touring Sri Lanka. Duarte, in Colombo for the launch, said, "The name Nando is derived from the latter part of my fore name Fernando and it is now a household name world wide.

“Duarte, whose chain has nearly 500 outlets in 30 countries, is an electrical engineer by profession while his co-founder Robert Brozin is an accountant by profession. They met one day in Chikenland, a small Portuguese style eatery in the suburbs of Johannesburg where they had their first taste of the Nando's dream.

The duo then bought Chikenland and changed it to Nando's. The chain's Sri Lankan franchise holder Sarath Wickramanayake is also an accountant by profession and former CEO of an insurance company.

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