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Our seven-year partnership with Nando’s supports local production, a responsive supply chain and meaningful employment for people with disability.
For more than seven years, Nando’s and Endeavour Foundation have worked together to pack one of the restaurant brand’s most recognisable grocery products, PERi-PERi Salt.
What began with just over 50,000 units has grown significantly. Last year, Endeavour Foundation’s Business Solutions team packed 240,000 tins, helping Nando’s meet growing demand while creating meaningful employment opportunities for people with disability.
For Cameron Hooper, Managing Director of Nando’s Grocery Australia and New Zealand, the partnership brings together two things that matter to the business – a more responsive local supply chain and shared values around inclusion.
“The initial motivation to choose Endeavour Foundation was really the opportunity to partner through their impact,” Cameron said.
“We as businesses have these shared values around changing lives, so to be able to partner with another business that’s like-minded to us was our main motivation.”
Bringing Production Closer to Home
Before working with us, Nando’s PERi-PERi Salt was imported as a finished product from China.
This created challenges around lead times, stock levels, quality standards and the amount of time remaining on products once they arrived in Australia.
Moving the packing process locally gave Nando’s greater control over its supply chain.
Today, the salt is produced by another local manufacturer before arriving at Endeavour Foundation Business Solutions, where our team manages the packing process.
Salt is decanted into tins using an auger filler, tins are printed with best-before dates and tamper-proofed, then packed into shelf-ready cartons.
From there, the finished product is distributed to Coles, Woolworths and independent grocers across Australia.
“By localising it here, much closer to where the physical salt was made, it just made it a whole lot more streamlined and simplified process,” Cameron said.
“Ultimately, it unlocked value throughout the whole value chain.”
Scaling from 50,000 to 240,000 Units
As demand for Nando’s PERi-PERi Salt has grown, Endeavour Foundation Business Solutions has been able to help in the product’s growth.
For each of the past four years, production has exceeded 200,000 units, reaching 240,000 last year.
That flexibility becomes particularly important when demand suddenly increases.
Around Christmas, for example, demand can increase significantly, with the team ramping up production to meet higher order volumes.
“Endeavour have contributed to our success primarily because it has made the supply chain far more responsive,” Cameron said.
“We are able to hold lower days of stock in country because no longer are we importing the product from other parts of the world.”
Adapting when Requirements Change
The partnership has also evolved as Nando’s requirements have changed.
When Nando’s needed a tamper-seal solution for its PERi-PERi Salt tins, the Business Solutions team worked through multiple options to find an approach that met the product’s needs.
The team has also helped reduce plastic used in packaging, while making incoming supplies easier for employees to handle during production.
For Cameron, this ability to adapt is one of the major benefits of working with Endeavour Foundation.
“It has meant that we’ve been able to be more responsive to any changes and tweaks we need to make to the product,” he said.
The partnership has also opened conversations about other products and activities that may be suited to Endeavour Foundation Business Solutions in the future.
“The broader benefits that we’ve got out of the relationship with Endeavour Foundation have really been around innovation,” Cameron said.
“It’s given us opportunities to think about other things that we could do in market, which sometimes are too complicated for our own supply chain.”
Creating Employment through Inclusion
Behind the commercial results is another important part of the partnership.
Around 10 supported employees are involved in the Nando’s work, creating employment opportunities for people with disability while producing a product sold in major supermarkets across Australia.
For Nando’s, working with Endeavour Foundation forms part of a broader focus on social and economic inclusion.
“Nando’s as a business goes out of its way and has a specific KPI about giving people their first ever job, driving diversity and inclusion in our workforces,” Cameron said.
“Endeavour Foundation has a great connection with us, with those values around changing lives. For us, it seems like a logical partnership.”
It means social sourcing does not sit separately from Nando’s commercial requirements. The partnership has continued because it can deliver both impact and a practical supply-chain solution.
A Partnership that Delivers
More than seven years after the partnership began, Nando’s PERi-PERi Salt continues to grow in popularity and the two organisations are discussing opportunities to work together in new ways.
For businesses considering whether Endeavour Foundation Business Solutions could become part of their own supply chain, Cameron points to the responsiveness and reliability he has experienced firsthand.
“They are highly responsive, very easy to work with, go out of their way to deliver a great result, and are a great partner.”
Want to know what Business Solutions Business Solutions could do for your supply chain? Get in touch with our team to explore how we can help you scale production while creating meaningful employment for people with disability.
