28 | theceomagazine.com

“ A lot of great stories come out of necessity.”An American in Poland and accidental restaurateur, AmRest Holdings’ Henry McGovern is proof that life can take you on the most unexpected of journeys.

WORDS CHRISSIE MCCLATCHIE • IMAGES AMREST HOLDINGS

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As a young Henry McGovern sat glued to the TV, watching the fall of the Berlin Wall, US President Ronald Regan addressed the nation. “He

was a very important figure in my life, and there he was, talking about the fact that we were witnessing one of the most significant events in world history,” the AmRest Holdings (AmRest) founder recalls from company headquarters, situated halfway across the world in Wroclaw, Poland. The 23-year-old budding real estate entrepreneur – and college dropout, having walked out before the final semester of a pre-med and philosophy degree at Georgetown University – had US$250,000 in the bank and an appetite for daring adventure that only the young possess. “So I decided to take a year off and go see for myself what it all meant.”

As Henry evokes the journey that led to the founding of American Retail Systems (as AmRest was known until 2000) with fellow American Don Kendall Jr, he makes it seem like what he did was

the most natural thing in the world: young American boards a plane for a region picking up the pieces after the fall of Communism, unsure of what he was going to see or do. More than 20 years later, he’s still in Poland and the company he founded is now the largest restaurant operator in Central and Eastern Europe. Perhaps it’s because Henry has told the story so many times before, but when hearing it for the first time, you can’t help but marvel at the excitement of it all and wonder when Hollywood is going to come knocking for the film rights.

A freshly unified Germany was the first stop for young Henry’s journey. “From there, I wanted to drive a car to Poland, and both the police and car rental company just laughed at me. They told me that all the cars that go there get stolen, so it wasn’t possible,” he says. Far from deterring him, this only made Henry even more determined to reach his destination. He recalls the quiet landscape that greeted him as he drove the first hundred or so kilometres past the German–Polish border.

Upon reaching Wroclaw, he noted it was the first city he had come across where any of the buildings were lit up

at night. “Not only were there lights on, but there was a bar open,”

he laughs. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is a pretty good place’.” First impressions count, and Wroclaw has been home ever since.

“People always want a big strategy, to know where

I drew inspiration from and all of that,” he says. “The

truth is I didn’t. I just went on a tour. I guess my brain and heart

sort of took me on that trip and chose to stop here, and then one good thing led to another.” Soon after he arrived, he entered into a local tennis tournament and beat Wroclaw’s finest. The championship also proved to be an invaluable networking opportunity. “I was told about a historical building in the centre of the city that was being sold at auction. »

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Henry’s favourite meal off the AmRest menu? “Our truffle

pizza at La Tagliatella. It’s perfect.”

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“It’s exciting to work with AmRest. Despite being demanding, AmRest is fair play, giving value to suppliers that work seriously with quality, high social and environmental standards and new packaging innovations. Huhtamaki is honoured to support AmRest on its growth journey in Poland and beyond.” – Kim Aganimov, Managing Director Foodservice Central and Eastern Europe, Huhtamaki Foodservice Poland

“Quick Service Logistics supports AmRest Holdings in all regional markets, among which Poland is a leader in terms of volume. Cooperation is based on solutions developed jointly with the client, tailored to their needs.” – Agnieszka Sałek, Commercial Director, Quick Service Logistics Poland

“ It was imperative I learned those three words – anything is possible – in order to tell everybody to get a new perspective and to figure out a solution. It defines many of the moments we have faced.”

So along I went, and it turned out I was the only person in the room because no-one wanted to bid against an American.” As he says, it’s easy to win an auction when you are the only person bidding. That’s how, so soon after his arrival, Henry found himself the owner of Rynek 48, occupying a prime position on the market square in the city’s medieval centre.

His intention was to lease the ground floor out to PepsiCo or the like to open a restaurant because he didn’t have any hospitality experience. But PepsiCo declined his invitation, offering him a Pizza Hut franchise instead. “I ended up in the restaurant business because no-one would rent the building from me. A lot of great stories come out of necessity as »

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“It’s a pleasure to work with AmRest. Our link is much greater than a traditional customer–supplier relationship. We consider ourselves partners in their expansion project all over the world. Their targets are our targets.” – Alexis Fornos, CEO, Decoretro

opposed to planning, and that is certainly the case with mine.” One Pizza Hut turned into another – the rest is history.

If anyone embodies the AmRest motto, Wszystko Jest Mo liwe (‘Anything is possible’), Henry does. “Since the beginning, it’s been about trying to do something that hasn’t been done before,” he says. “The number of people I would meet who would say it isn’t possible, that we couldn’t get electricity, telephone lines or permits. We couldn’t find a supplier for mozzarella cheese, there was no quality flour – you name it, it didn’t exist.” The phrase was one of the first he mastered in Polish. “It was imperative I learned those three words in order to tell everybody to get a new perspective and to figure out a solution. It really defines many of the moments we have faced as a company,” he says.

It’s a motto that has propelled AmRest to heights Henry would hardly have dared

to imagine when he purchased Rynek 48 back in 1993. Currently, the company operates nearly 1,200 quick service and casual dining restaurants in 13 countries: Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Spain, France, Germany and China. It has franchise and joint venture partnerships with Burger King and Starbucks, in addition to Pizza Hut and KFC (ex-PepsiCo brands now owned by Yum! Inc.), and has also developed its own concept called La Tagliatella, an Italian restaurant that has given AmRest a foothold in Western Europe. The company also recently acquired two brands in »

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“ I think we proved early on that we could do something most businesses in Europe struggle with: crossing borders.”

China – Blue Frog Bar and Grill, and Kabb Bistro Bar. “I think we proved early on that we could do something most businesses in Europe struggle with: crossing borders. Today we are a proven restaurant operator across different types of brands, service and borders. Our spirit and core values aren’t specific to a region or a brand,” he explains.

What makes this success even more remarkable is that, like Henry, many of the principal characters in the AmRest story don’t hail from a restaurant background. “Passion and discipline beat competency and experience every day,” Henry answers, when asked if this has been a help or a hindrance to its growth. “What I’ve found is that if you hire people based on competency or experience, it leads to more repetition rather than really getting outside of the box. What we try to do is bring a lot of passion to our ideas and a lot of discipline through the systems and processes required to make the thousands of transactions that we do on a daily basis as reliable as possible,” he continues. “So we try to hire for passion, and then we provide the on-the-job experience and we sort of demand operational excellence.” The company has developed what Henry calls a “two+two+two system”, which rotates internal talent between two brands, or two aligning disciplines, in two different countries, over two years.

Henry’s current position in the company also defies the usual stereotype. Commonly referred to, both internally and externally, as “the boss”, he was CEO in the traditional sense until 2008. Today the acronym still stands but has a totally different meaning: Chief Emotional

Officer. It is a title he has given himself. “I used to be more of a top-down leader,” he admits, “but as we grew so substantially, I realised I was surrounded by so many capable people who could do certain things much better than I could.” He recognises his strengths don’t lie in marketing or operations, but rather in leadership, motivation and inspiring his team for future possibilities.

“I wanted the company to get away from a formal power structure and instead acknowledge the capabilities of everybody in it. I decided that the title of Chief Executive Officer sounded too serious – I think it puts certain boxes around things – so I decided to start introducing myself as the Chief Emotional Officer.” It was the catalyst for a three-year journey to develop his emotional, rather than executive, intelligence and the title has stuck. “I think everybody appreciates it and likes it. So even though I have the role of running the company and preparing the company strategy, I take my role as Chief Emotional Officer more seriously,” he says.

If you had asked Henry 20 years ago if he believed he would still be living in

LOCAL FLAVOUR

Henry says AmRest works hard to put a unique imprint on what are internationally recognised names. “At Pizza Hut, for example, we have created the first fast casual pizza brand in our markets. Everything is made fresh in front of the customer, from the dough, through to the addition of the toppings they want. And their order is ready within five minutes.”

He says AmRest is “constantly trying to evolve the brands, and we have developed the internal capability to do that. We work closely with our franchisors to take the best globally and then augment it to be the best locally.”

Poland all these years later, he probably would have responded with a no. Although he travels frequently back to the US (he had just returned from Houston and the NFL Super Bowl when The CEO Magazine interviewed him), his wife is Polish and Wroclaw is definitely home.

So what is his vision for AmRest 20 years from now? “My vision is to be the leading restaurant company in the world,” he says. “I know it’s an audacious goal, but we’ve broken it down to something more short term that we feel we can get our heads around; that is to be the leading restaurant company in Europe in the next five years.” He sees no reason why this target won’t be achieved.

“We have a wonderful relationship with our franchise brand partners – with Starbucks, Yum! and Burger King. Our own brands are in excellent shape – La Tagliatella is by far the market leader in Spain, and Blue Frog is trending with the millennial crowd,” he says. The company has also become the partner of choice for Europe’s largest real estate developers. “So we are not caught up in any one nationality; instead, we are thinking and acting in a way that is meant to be Pan-European. I think that is reflected throughout the company. Our strategy is to own the best brands that can cross borders.” As the Wroclaw locals say, at AmRest, Wszystko Jest Mo liwe.

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