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F: Good evening and welcome to Business People. We are fortunate to have as our guest tonight Heiko Waldman, the founder and Director of East Hamburger. Heiko was brought up in America and started his working life there. Now he is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Europe. How did he achieve this? Well, he began his rise to success in Europe when he launched his hamburger delivery chain from a small shop in Berlin, 10 years ago. By the late-nineties he had succeeded in expanding the business to over 400 outlets and in doing so, he has almost transformed the eating habits of the nation. As a result of this success, he has recently been able to buy out his main competitor and today, Fast Hamburger is well-known for producing top-quality food at reasonable prices. Heiko is now one of the wealthiest men in German. Heiko, welcome to our studio.
M: Thank you.
F: Now, did you do lots of market research before you set up your hamburger delivery service?
M: Well, not really. But I did do some basic research to get the product itself right by giving some away to teenagers in the neighbourhood. I kept experimenting with the key ingredients until they all thought the hamburgers were great.
F: But surely German isn’t traditionally a fast food market, so why did you think a hamburger home delivery service would be successful?
M: Well, I just thought that the same trends which had caused the fast-food revolution in the US were at work in German. For example, more and more women were joining the labour market, leaving them less time to shop and cook, so families were beginning to think of fast food as an attractive alternative to home cooking. The sector grew incredibly quickly in the first few years. It’s a little steadier now -- still very healthy though.
F: Great ! So you must need an increasing number of staff -- but what do you look for in your managers?
M: I try to follow the American system and make sure my pe6ple get experience at all levels of the business. I don’t want managers to come straight from university to the office without doing the basic jobs in the company first.
F: Fast Hamburger was floated on the Stock Exchange in 1998. Was that a success, too?
M: Yes, it was amazing!
F: Why do you think Fast Hamburger attracted so much investment?
M : I think initially it was largely because the basic theory of home delivery hamburgers was new, easy for the general public to understand, and fun. Once we were established, the shares started to take oil’. And I’m happy to say that we’ve been the best performer on the stock market ibr two years and profits were up again by 45% last year.
F: What background did you have, or training, to lead to this amazing success?
M: Sales basically. I started my working life as a salesman for a soap company in America. After the initial three month training period, I managed to exceed the annual target they had given me, but I was so disgusted by the tiny bonus I was offered that I resigned and joined a competitor. Ten years later, they sent me to German to run their sales and marketing operation.
F: Does any aspect of the German lifestyle help you to promote your products?
M: Well, Germans are very keen on football, as you know, and I think you have to be constantly aware of all possible opportunities. So now, when top teams are playing, I hire extra staff to deliver hamburgers for the fans to eat while they watch .the match on television.
F: That sounds like a real winner! And what’s next?
M: Well, one option I was looking at was franchising the operation but I decided I didn’t want to lose control, so what I’m seriously considering now is producing frozen hamburgers and other food to sell to supermarket and restaurant chains.
F: Well, I wish you every success with that and many thanks.