An Australian fast food empire that got its start as a tiny charcoal chicken shop next to a train station could earn its husband-and-wife owners a fortune as they test the water for a potential sale.
Lebanese immigrant Andre Estephan opened his original shop with his sister Samira in 1997 before branching out on his own to found El Jannah with his wife Carole.
The couple are now proud owners of a fast food juggernaut with 35 locations in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.
The business that stemmed from the original store in Granville, Western Sydney, is now reportedly on the radar of international investment banks such as Morgan Stanley who are looking to advise the owners and broker a potential sale this year.
The business is yet to formally bring any advisers on board, however, the company’s CEO Brett Houldin has been speaking to potential bidders, the Australian Financial Review reported.
Mr Houldin previously ran Craveable Brands – the owner of Oporto, Red Rooster and Chargrilled Charlies – which has itself been courting buyers.
Craveable’s owner PAG Asia Capital had been in talks with Affinity Equity Partners which valued that business at $800million, although discussions recently collapsed.
El Jannah is about one-fifteenth the size – 35 locations versus 544 – which based on that alone would see its value north of $50million, however any offer would likely be higher based on its strong branding and potential for expansion.
Mr Houldin said in October last year his ambition was for El Jannah to have 300 sites ‘maybe closer to 500 if we can’ within the next decade.
El Jannah’s husband-and-wife duo Andre and Carole Estephan are pictured inside a store
El Jannah is now a fast food juggernaut with 35 locations in NSW, Victoria and the ACT after its humble beginnings as a single store beside a train station (a branch is pictured)
El Jannah’s roots go back to the first chicken shop called Awafi which was opened by Andre and Samira and their respective partners in 1997 in the Sydney suburb of Granville.
Samira and her husband Simon Azzi chipped in the majority of the capital with Andre and his wife Carole putting in the rest.
Awafi offered traditional Lebanese style chicken cooked over an open pit of charcoals, with the delicious smell reportedly drawing in customers from the nearby train station and word soon spread through the surrounding suburbs.
‘People think Australians are the only ones to barbecue, but it’s normal for every home to cook with charcoals in Lebanon,’ Simon and Samira’s daughter Sindy said.
In 1998, Andre and Carole had decided to split from Simon and Samira and go out on their own by founding El Jannah, which means ‘heaven’ in Arabic.
Andre took on the administration and front-of-house side of the business while Carole worked as chef in the back kitchen.
Being a family business, agreements about Awafi’s methods and finances were informal and led to a rivalry between the new El Jannah and the Azzi’s, who continued on with Awafi, as the two restaurants competed for customers.
El Jannah’s chargrilled fare – served with Lebanese mixed pickles, pita bread, fries and a generous serving of its famed garlic sauce – saw it rise to the top of Sydney’s warring chicken chains.
The palatial home owned by the El Jannah founders is pictured. The couple is hoping to sell the sprawling mansion in Sydney’s northwest for $15million
Awafi along with Hawa also from Western Sydney, Portuguese immigrant-founded Frangos and the aforementioned eastern suburbs-based Chargrilled Charlies have all seen success but El Jannah’s meteoric rise has outshone them.
‘Back in 1998, El Jannah was one of the first of its kind to offer this type of food,’ Mr Estephan told Real Commercial last year.
‘We saw an opportunity to sell a high-quality product that wasn’t already widely available and Granville was an ideal location because of the existing Lebanese community.
‘We loved seeing customers who enjoyed our food and would return with their friends and family. With our charcoal chicken as the hero and sales growing, by the end of the first year of trade we knew it would be a successful business.’
The company branched out on its second location in nearby Punchbowl in 2009 followed by other locations in its ‘heartland’ of Western Sydney.
It then moved into Melbourne with venues in Preston, Campbellfield and Craigeburn performing well.
It now has regional NSW locations in Tahmoor and Albion Park along with a store in Gungahlin in the ACT.
Newcastle, Woollongong, Canberra, SA and Queensland are next, though the new locations will be standalone restaurants with food courts off the table, according to Mr Houldin.
‘I’d love the brand to be all over the country and potentially go international.’
Recent success stories in Australia’s red-hot fast food industry include burrito chain Guzman y Gomez which recently floated on the ASX and Sunshine Coast founded Betty’s Burgers which has exploded to 60 locations in under 10 years.
