Interview

Secrets To Restaurant Success With Joseph Youssef of Naughty Group Oyj

If building a restaurant brand was a university study, Naughty BRGR | Retail | Studios | Lab would be the professor. This Finnish burger chain is on fire. 🔥

“We are ready to open 4-5 stores yearly,” says business director Joseph Youssef. I asked him what the secret was.  

Today Naughty Brgr group comprises three business parts: Restaurants, Retail and Studio. The studio is their full-blown media department. 🎥

So when I asked Joseph what the secret to their success is, he told me that premium quality came first but building a solid brand was a close second. 

“We used to think in terms of creating great concepts. Today we talk about building a great brand.” 💬

A brand without substance is an empty box, but that’s not the case for Naughty Brgr.

“We want to make the best burgers in the world”. They sure are right on target.

In fact, “It’s so good; it’s naughty” is what the jury told founder Akseli Herlevi when he participated in Finland’s Top Chef. It was the start of the Naughty Brgr brand and the beginning of amazing growth. 

So, what are the core elements of their success? Joseph lets us take a peek under the hood.

🍔 Great food — “Everything is 100% fresh and 100% local. Nothing in our stores is defrosted, and everything is made in Finland.”  

👨💼Commitment to staff — “Covid hit us hard, but we decided to stay open and keep all our staff. We didn’t make any money, but we didn’t let anyone go either.” 

❇️ Building a brand — Naughty Brgr is known all over Finland. It started with a famous chef and a great concept, but the team managed to capture that essence and create something massive that could stand independently.

🌱 Branching out — Naughty Brgr is much more than its restaurants. It also offers retail products and produces content for TV and social. These are separate business divisions, but they all fuel the brand and vice versa.   

📈 Financially strong — “We can support our expansion plans without external investors”.  

💧Uniqueness — “Each restaurant is instantly recognisable as Naughty Brgr, yet they are all different. The colours, style etc., are always on brand, but each restaurant has its own flavour in terms of floor plan and décor, making it unique within the group.”

📲 Advanced digitisation — “We are a data-driven organisation. I can digitally monitor all processes from sales to stock and HACCP. I only need to consult my dashboards to know what to order from suppliers.” 

Naughty Brgr more than deserves its spot in our article: ‘47 Scaling Restaurants In Scandinavia To Keep An Eye On (Because They Are Awesome)

See what other concepts & brands made the list from: 🇩🇰 Denmark, 🇳🇴 Norway, 🇸🇪 Sweden and 🇫🇮 Finland 👇

Geert Merckaert

Geert Merckaert is the Content and Research Director at Apicbase and the producer of The Food Service Growth Show. He specialises in operational excellence, sustainability, and digital transformation in the restaurant and catering industry. Geert has a diverse background in content marketing, writing, and research, with previous roles in corporate finance at Bank van Breda, food marketing at VLAM, and the trade association Bakkers Vlaanderen. He holds degrees in Communications and Journalism from Plantijnhogeschool, as well as Art History from the Kunsthistorisch Instituut. During his studies, Geert spent nine years working weekends as a restaurant chef. He is dedicated to helping foodservice companies achieve sustainable growth through engaging and insightful content.

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