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As a globally qualified culinary judge, Marc J.B Schreuder, is a Dutch national who has traversed African landscape as well as Saudi Arabia for the last 22 years.
A trained chef, Schreuder is the current divisional managing director of UAC Franchising responsible for several brands in Nigeria, including Mr.Bigg’s, Village Kitchen, Nandos, among others.
He takes PHILIP OKAFOR into the exciting world of quick service industry and the giant stride to rebrand Mr. Bigg’s in this interview.

Franchise in fast food industry
Franchising in the quick restaurant business aims to create a solid middle-class of entrepreneurs. Franchising was introduced many years ago and has become a successful kind of business model. It is really bringing across intellectual property for people to use at a fee. The fast food industry in Nigeria has huge opportunities and I think everybody sees them. However, there are lots of people that will get their if they do not go with a reputable franchise, they will get their fingers burnt and lose their savings. This is my biggest fears. 
Rebranding strategies
If a brand remains the same for too long, it will die. A brand is like a personality, which is called integrity. If you look at the way McDonald’s started years ago and what it is doing now, you will notice that the company is moving ahead because it is constantly re-inventing its brands without taking away the original standards.
My vision and mission is to help the brand grow together with the nation. Nigerians are travelling more and are becoming more discerning with regard to quality and taste. It is easy being the market leader; but today your market leader minus one is the day you have lost the war. This is why Mr. Bigg’s as a brand keeps re-inventing itself…bringing in other offerings. 
Quality control
We serve more than 60,000 customers a day, and it is not impossible to have seen dissatisfied customers. But the percentage of unsatisfied customers is less than .0001. In this business, you are only as good as the loss you sometimes get. 
You come to Mr.Bigg’s for five years and have never had any cause to buy bad meat pie; you are happy and accept the standard it is keeping. Today, your meat pie is not all that good; you will be very unhappy and disappointed. You will tell everybody about it. However, we are strictly for high standards and quality. We are employing quality people at all levels. We are training people on food safety, among others, on an on-going basis. You can see that we have recently repainted every single restaurant in the country. 
Unique selling point
Basically, we are a household name. We have been around longer than every other brand. Everybody knows we are a leading brand, but this does not mean we are conceding anything to our loyalty. 
Our cutting-edge over our competitors is the fact that we have the largest footprint in Nigeria and have more than 47 percent of the market. With this comes a dedicated team of professionals and the ability to have funds available for research and training and a host of others. This manifests itself when you look at our service and quality standards. It is the passion and commitment on the part of all the people driving Mr.Bigg’s to make the brand work. 
Afrocentricity of recent advertisement
It connects and portrays African values in every sense of the word. As for Mr. Bigg’s, times are tough and with the global credit crunch, everybody is affected one way or another. And that is why we say: “We are always on your side,” “We are together in this,” “we grow together,” “we love and cry together,” “we are an integral part of life in Nigeria. 
Challenges
The challenges include lack of infrastructure, pipe-borne water and electricity. The use of generators adds greatly to our operating cost and poses a tremendous effect on profitability. In addition are research development and cost of importing equipment. 
Prospects
Part of Mr. Bigg’s future plans in Nigeria is to expand its footprint, to modernise and keep re-inventing the brand without losing the best six that make the brand great.
We are hoping to open up branches in Sokoto before the end of the year. We are not leaving any room for complacency, and that is one of the biggest drives I give to my team--we can never be good enough, so we must continue to strive to make huge inroads into the market. So, the standards are going up all the time, which is key for us.