From left: Tariq Asghar and Mansoor Munir, members of executive committee, PEG; Mutahir Rizvi, Secretary General, PEG; Engr. Rami Abu Ghazaleh, CEO, Al Baik; Abdul Salik Khan, Consul General, Pakistan; Munir Gondal, President, PEG; and Khalid Ali Khan, Treasurer, PEG. Saleh Fareed Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – Addressing a reception hosted by the Pakistan Executive Group (PEG) in Jeddah on Tuesday, Eng. Rami Abu Ghazaleh, CEO of Al Baik Food Systems Ltd, said AlBaik is the result of his father's long-term dream to own a successful restaurant business that is built on the pursuit of excellence. The meeting was within the framework of organizing meetings between experienced businessmen and members of PEG to enable them to hear the success story of such personalities. In his welcoming speech, Mutahir Rizvi, secretary-general of PIG introduced Eng. Rami Abu Ghazaleh to the members of PEG and their families, described his story as an inspirational one which is worth to be heard. Rizvi said “motivational stories have the ability to lift us up, make us smile, encourage, motivate, and teach us valuable life lessons. Therefore, we are honored to have a person who graduated in civil engineering with no experience of food industry but by following his father's steps, he and his brother were able to establish the most popular chicken and seafood restaurant chain in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” As members of PEG and their spouses sat eagerly to hear the inspirational story “ Recipe for Success”, Ghazaleh told them that their success came after a hard work and willingness to face all the challenges of building a successful organization that has a deep sense of commitment toward its society, customers, and team members. Highlighting Al Baik's success story, he said “In September 1974, the late Shakkour Abu Ghazaleh renovated an old warehouse he was renting, and opened the first pressurized fried chicken restaurant in the Kingdom. It was located at Old Airport Road, in Jeddah. The concept was new to the area, and business was slow at the beginning. He was serving not more than 100 customers per day during the first 90 days after opening. Within one year, long lines were starting to form outside his restaurant and there was no looking back.” He continued: “ Our father taught us how to be real men while we were young, he used to make us do all the hard work while teaching us how to handle the job. Although we specialized in totally different field and had no idea about how to run a restaurant, I and my brother returned back to the Kingdom while we were abroad to follow the steps of our father and make his dream come true.” He referred this success to the blessing of Allah and the commitment of their staff. “We are proud to have developed a quality concept that has grown to serve and please hundreds of millions of customers over the years and our success comes when we see the satisfaction and happiness of our customers. Beside that, the best investment is investing in our people, their minds, hearts and aspirations,” he said. He noted that the company's food has become so popular that it has had to register its trade name in 80 countries to prevent copycats from setting up shop under the same name. He said “due to the big demand for Al Baik, people everywhere in the world started to copy our brand in order to attract customers and we have been taking steps to filing lawsuits against these people.” He announced that Al Baik for the first time will open a branch just in front the Holy Mosque in Makkah. “ We have our branch in Azziziah district in Makkah but in April we will come close to our Hajji customers instead of paying SR20 for a taxi to reach Al Baik in Al Azziziah.” He described Haj operation as a challenging step to serve an enormous group of people. “It is really a crazy operation but we managed to make it a success through the commitment of our hardworking and loyal staff who work over 18 hours a day at the three outlets to serve Hajjis with the highest quality and value food.” As everyone was wondering about the secret of his recipe, a lady asked him to reveal it but Abu Ghazaleh told her “do you believe I do not know either.” Off course no one believed in the room. He spoke frankly, saying “believe me I do not even know what kind of recipe we use, only one person with his staff at the factory know.” As the very inspirational meeting came to an end, Abdul Salik Khan, Consul General of Pakistan thanked Abu Ghazaleh to come in front the members of Pakistan Executive Group (GEP) and share his success story. He said “it is really an inspirational story and we are very glad to hear the secret behind this success. Your story will allow us to learn, be inspired, and inspire others to continue to move boldly forward towards your vision.” “Whenever I receive my guests here, I try to host in various restaurants in Jeddah but most of them insist to eat in Al Baik instead, which proves how popular your restaurant is,” Khan said. Munir Gondal, President, PEG and Khan presented the PEG Shield to Ghazaleh.
