It might not be obvious from the outside, but Guzman y Gomez is quickly becoming a go-to workplace for hospitality veterans. We speak to employees who have made the move to find out why some of the industry’s brightest minds are jumping on board.
While they’re not typically considered career destinations, fast-food restaurants are where countless hospitality professionals cut their teeth. They’re often a place for young people to get a taste for the industry and learn the ins and outs of service before moving on to higher-end or specialist venues. But Guzman y Gomez (GYG) is turning this concept on its head.
The restaurant group’s mission is to “reinvent fast-food”, and while Guzman y Gomez does employ young, aspirational hospitality people, GYG is making a habit of attracting experienced career professionals from major hospo groups around the country. We caught up with two veterans who have made the move to GYG and asked them to unpack the reasons behind the revolution.
Luke Davies has opened venues with hospo giant Merivale, operated celebrity chef Matt Moran’s restaurants and run pubs for hospitality group Solotel. He’s been working as GYG’s Corporate state manager for the past 12 months and is about to open a new franchise in Orange, NSW (we’ll get to that). Davies says his (and other hospo professionals’) interest in GYG began with the food – naturally.
“I was actually working on a venue opening for Merivale in the Northern Beaches at the time. There was a Guzman y Gomez nearby, and we ended up eating it for dinner every night because it was fast, healthy and genuinely clean food,” he says. “We all appreciated the flavour profiles and service, and hospitality people tend to gravitate towards great operators and products. The fact that GYG was doing something clean, high quality and at volume was attractive to anyone in hospo.”
One of GYG’s points-of-difference from other casual diners (and most hospo groups) is the ownership opportunities within the group. Ambitious employees can flag their interest and be put on a pathway towards running a franchise. This pathway was something that drew Davies to the brand, and he says it’s attracting more experienced hospitality people.
“I like being busy and being challenged, and I had reached a point in my career where I felt like I needed to find more growth pathways for myself. The opportunity for ownership is something that a lot of operators don’t provide, but GYG has pathways for anyone who wants them,” Davies says. “There are plenty of awesome operators who have moved here from traditional hospitality backgrounds for growth and the option to have their own franchise in the future.”
Davies has spent his first 12 months with GYG Corporate, getting to know the brand inside and out. He’s chosen to spend a lot of his time in restaurants to understand the people and processes that make GYG tick. With that knowledge at his disposal, Davies is opening his own franchise in Orange – an area he grew up in.
“I’ve spent heaps of time in and around Orange, so I’m excited to bring the brand to a town that has an awesome food scene. I know they’ve been crying out for a GYG,” he says. “You can feel excitement as the build gets closer to opening. People are pumped to be employed as part of the journey or just to be able to dine with us, and it’s great to feel that energy in a place where I’ve got a lot of friends and family.”
While there are plenty of external hospo veterans moving to GYG for the franchising opportunities, Davies says there are still plenty of opportunities for junior team members within the brand.
“Some of our strongest restaurant managers and some of our most successful franchisees started on the line. We had a stellar restaurant manager who nailed the operations in the restaurant, and we’ve been able to provide a pathway for them to come into head office and take on overseas opportunities,” he says. “If you nail what you do and invest in the resources GYG gives you, the progression opportunities are exceptional here. Plus, we interview internally for senior positions, we’re always focused on internal progression.”
And aside from the franchising and growth aspects of his role, Davies says the energetic and positive culture at GYG keeps him coming into work every day.
“I haven’t had this kind of energy and vibe in a workplace before, so it’s really inspiring to be a part of. You feel it when you walk into a restaurant. It’s something you can’t really experience anywhere else,” he says. “We work hard and move quickly, but it’s so much fun. We enjoy what we do and we bring that energy to each day and each service.”
Another hospitality veteran who made the move to Guzman y Gomez is Pete Geraerts, the group’s Corporate and Culinary Operations Coach. Similarly to Davies, Geraerts has an extensive hospitality background, but his experience comes from bars and nightclubs.
Geraerts started out working in backpacker bars and hostels before moving back to Australia and running a few bars of his own. After 17 years in the industry, he reached what he calls the “pinnacle” of his nightlife career, taking over as venue manager at Melbourne’s iconic Hotel Esplanade (The Espy).
“I was finishing at six in the morning, three days a week. Working every weekend, working every public holiday – I was starting to burn out,” Geraerts says. “It was great in my twenties, but I’m older now, I’ve got a partner and ambitions for other things in my life.”
Lifestyle changes and the desire for career progression were behind Geraerts’ decision to make a move, and he quickly realised that GYG could offer him work-life balance, career growth and much more – all while allowing him to continue working in the industry he loves.
“I did my research, and what really stuck out was the freshness and quality of the food, as well as the support for Australian farmers. I really identified with GYG and what they stood for,” he says. “I love hospitality, but I had gotten to the peak of my bar career in the traditional sense. GYG offered me another career branch to take in terms of going into area management and learning from a large team with a diverse range of experiences.”
Geraerts now oversees the Guzman y Gomez CBD stores in Melbourne, where he was responsible for reopening the Swanston Street flagship restaurant after a major renovation. The site is the brand’s first and currently only 24-hour spot, and Geraerts says his experience running late-night venues coupled with the support he’s received from GYG have him in a great position to help the restaurants continue to succeed.
“We have the best training and development programs for all our new starters, starting at Swanston Street then moving to other stores. It’s really exciting, it’s a big restaurant doing big numbers and there’s a lot of expectation around it,” he says. “I’ve got some great transferrable experience from my time at The Espy – and the head office team has prepared me really well for the challenge.”
The development opportunities that GYG offers are attracting experienced hospitality professionals, but there’s also a wealth of knowledge available to more junior staff. Geraerts says the benefits available with the group may not seem obvious to outsiders, and he wishes he had known what he was missing earlier.
“There’s better career opportunities, development and benefits here than a lot of places you’ll find in hospitality, and our main goal is to develop people into leaders within the company,” Geraerts says. “I was a duty manager in my mid-twenties working crazy hours. Had I known an opportunity existed at GYG to be in a similar role with better career development and hours, I would have jumped at it.”
Above all, Geraerts says hospitality veterans are making the move to GYG because of the seemingly endless opportunities to learn – something that can feel finite in hospitality roles.
“In my past jobs, there wasn’t a huge amount left to learn. Now every day in meetings or talking to clients, I’m picking stuff up constantly. There’s new information every day. The best thing career wise, for me, is the learning opportunities.”
The learning opportunities – and the food.
“I still eat the food here every day! It’s fresh, fast and clean – and after a year I still can’t get enough of it.”
Photography: Katje Ford (Luke Davies) & Ben Moynihan (Pete Geraerts)
This article is produced by Scout Jobs in partnership with Guzman y Gomez.
