Aug
Nando’s has evolved into a 458-restaurant cultural phenomenon with a progressive peri-peri approach to their brand. I have been supplying them photography for a number of years, working with some incredible creatives.
Nando’s has always recognised that they had to be about much more than just the chicken that they served. From collaborations and associations with music artists (including a recording studio in their Soho restaurant), to partnering with Spier Arts Trust with a long-term commitment to contemporary Southern African art, peri-peri sauce now flavours many forms of popular culture.
Nando’s takes a progressive approach to promoting their #everyoneiswelcome stance through various different platforms. Their UK social media followers on Twitter and Instagram far exceeds their competitors. Nando’s millennial engagement and content has adopted music takeovers, reworks of memes or TikTok recipes using their sauces, and campaigns surrounding everything from the pandemic to student results, mental wellbeing and entrepreneurship.
Nando’s culture of diversity takes a “neighbourhood” approach to expansion driven by local demographics. If the clientele in Nando’s restaurants is modern, multiracial Britain made manifest, it could be because it engages its audience in a genuine, holistic way.
I recently photographed the new Nottingham, Netherfield Nando’s at Victoria Park Way. The restaurant was designed by Harrison with 118 internal, and 20 external covers. The exterior entrance is clad in timber and has both the Nando’s sign and logo, which light up in the evening. There is also a feature seated canopy area with box planters.
The interior is a kaleidoscope picture of the Nando’s palette, materials, lighting, and furniture. The flooring is a combination of Ted Todd wooden floor panels and tiles. The walls range from micro concrete trowelled finished render, to ribbed concrete tiles, exposed brick finish and vertical mosaic tiles with a deep glaze. There is a large selection of original South African art along with interspersed planters.
The seating is a mixture of large “live” edge banqueting tables, individual marble and chestnut top tables plus booths that divide the space. There is a suspended angled lath ceiling feature which is illuminated by linear LED strips, along with track lighting and Hoola Hoop pendant lights above the booths.
The evolution of the Nando’s progressive peri-peri brand is inspired by their adventurous spirit and values of Pride, Passion, Courage, Integrity and Family.
