Headquartered in South Africa, KFC Africa, regional operating unit of US-based fast-food chain KFC, has appointed Nolo Thobejane as head of rest of sub-Saharan Africa (RoSSA), which is made up of 22 growth markets. This appointment became effective on 1 January 2022.
KFC, a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., is a global chicken restaurant brand with a rich, decades-long history of success and innovation. It all started with one cook, Colonel Harland Sanders, who created a finger lickin’ good recipe more than 75 years ago, a list of secret herbs and spices scratched out on the back of the door to his kitchen.
In her new role, Nolo Thobejane will assume overall accountability over the brand’s sub-Saharan markets, a key region for the brand. She will oversee and accelerate the group’s growth agenda while ensuring franchise partners uphold KFC brand standards and values in serving customers, teams and communities.
Nolo Thobejane said: “ KFC has set the bar high in the QSR sector, so we already have strong foundations in place in sub-Saharan Africa. My goal is to move that bar even higher – especially around partner capability as a key enabler of growth. People and Culture will always remain critical in unlocking potential in growth markets. My role will encompass ensuring that our talent and the skills required are future-proofed post-Covid and while more immediately tapping into new channels driven by e-commerce and finding opportunities to amid the pandemic to continue to drive brand trust. The right skills and partnerships create the kind of stability and culture that both people and business need in an environment where change is inevitable and happening at an exponential rate. By using our culture as the competitive edge, and by progressively building our capability, we will further enable our partners to grow. There is something special about our continent which really resonates with the KFC culture and what we stand for. In sub-Saharan Africa, this is the basis of our recipe for success,”
Nolo Thobejane joined the KFC business in 2006 as human resources business partner and rose through the ranks to her former/previous executive post of franchise operations and engagement director for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa (RoSSA) region. In this role, Nolo Thobejane traveled the length and breadth of the continent overseeing the operations across all the KFC restaurants in the RoSSA. “ As a franchise operations director I oversee the operations across all the KFC restaurants in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. I see myself as custodian of the brand to ultimately contribute towards the success of the brand in Africa. To achieve this, my role requires me to be detailed, innovative and energetic while using available resources to ensure and drive customer satisfaction”, she said in a interview”.
Prior to joining KFC, Nolo Thobejane worked (from 2002 to 2004) for Woolworths Supermarkets, an Australian supermarket and grocery store chain owned by the Woolworths Group. Prior to that, she spent 6 years (1996-2002) as Store Manager for McDonald’s Corporation, the world’s leading fast food company.
Nolo Thobejane holds an MBA from the Gordon Institute of Business Science, South Africa; a Diploma in Human Resource Management from the University of Johannesburg and a Bachelor of Library and Information Science from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
