Multi-country fast-food chain scaling ops automation across 500+ restaurants
Hungry Lion operates 500+ restaurants across 9 African countries with a 5,000–10,000-person workforce anchored in South Africa. The tech stack reveals an operations-first business: heavy reliance on BigQuery, Looker, and Power BI for visibility, paired with GCP/AWS infrastructure and ERP (SAGE X3) for supply-chain control. The hiring mix is heavily weighted toward operations (59% of active roles), with active projects focused on replenishment automation, central ordering, and kitchen optimization—all pointing to a chain scaling through operational standardization rather than product innovation.
Notable leadership hires: Head Logistics
Hungry Lion is a public fast-food operator headquartered in Stellenbosch, South Africa, with 500+ locations across 9 African countries. The business model is centered on high-volume, affordable dining in modern fast-food environments. Operationally, the company is working through supply-chain and inventory challenges (out-of-stock and overstocking issues cited as active pain points) while automating core processes: replenishment, central ordering, and store development workflows. Finance and BI dashboards (built on BigQuery/Looker/Power BI) underpin cross-country budgeting and store-level performance tracking. Leadership is actively hiring for operational roles in South Africa, Mauritius, and Tanzania, with a notable Head Logistics position open.
BigQuery, Looker, and Power BI for analytics; SAGE X3 for ERP; GCP and AWS for infrastructure; AppSheet and Google Sheets for operational workflows; Python and SQL for data pipelines.
Replenishment and central ordering automation, ERP upgrades, kitchen layout optimization, store development pipelines, and BI dashboard enhancement to address out-of-stock and overstocking issues across the 500+ restaurant network.
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