Do we like them?

Do we like Nando's?

Flame-grilled peri-peri chicken restaurant chain, founded in Johannesburg in 1987, with about 984 sites worldwide.

Our score: 5 out of 10. Mixed. It has arts and sustainability work and is a much-loved brand. But it walked back its flagship chicken welfare pledge, and campaigners are angry.

Nando's began in 1987 in Rosettenville, Johannesburg, started by Portuguese-born Fernando Duarte and South African Robert Brozin. Investor Dick Enthoven came in at 30% in the early 1990s and helped take it global. Brozin stepped down as CEO in 2010 after the 1,000th restaurant opened.

It is still a private family business, backed by the Enthoven family. In the year to February it reported an £11.3m pre-tax loss on £1.51bn turnover, against a £38.2m profit the year before. Energy, labour and food costs were blamed. Chief executive Rob Papps called the performance 'positive' given the sector's challenges.

The big drama is chicken welfare. In 2020 Nando's signed the Better Chicken Commitment, and World Animal Protection welcomed it after a 36,000-signature petition. By 2026 it had stepped back and joined the Sustainable Chicken Forum. It says it hit four of the six commitments, but not the move to slower-growing breeds.

Campaigners are not impressed. World Animal Protection's UK farming manager said they fear the new forum will bring little improvement. Another group called the forum a 'welfare-washing' PR stunt. On the plus side, Nando's has backed South African artists for 15 years through the Nando's Creative Exchange with Spier Arts Trust.

Our score is a middling 5. There's real cultural investment and some welfare progress. But the backtrack on breeds is the single most important welfare commitment, and a past hygiene fine in Western Australia counts against it. We'd want to see it recommit before we'd happily back it.