Local Hog's Breath owner, Manish Gupta has taken out the coveted Hog's Breath Franchisee of the Year award for his Mandurah and Eaton stores.
Mr Gupta was awarded the impressive trophy and $5,000 cheque at the company’s annual conference in Fiji last week.
The award is based on a number of criteria including cooperation, involvement in the business, sales improvement and ability to adapt to system and operational changes.
The successful business man said he was up against some tough competition.
“I’m honestly so surprised to win this award,” he said.
“I’m just new to this, the people I was up against have been in the system for ten or fifteen years and are very experienced and own a lot of stores.
“I just sat there not moving when they called my name, I just didn’t expect to win.”
Not one to settle for a single award, the Indian-born father also took home a string of accolades for his Eaton store including Best Restaurant in the Region (24 stores across WA, NT and half of VIC) and Highest Merchandise Sales in the country.
The store is less than two years old and already highly decorated.
“One of our waitresses also won the Best Server award from customers voting for her service here in Eaton so she got to accompany me to Fiji,” he said.
“Out of 87 stores, she got number one which is so great because we pride ourselves on customer service.”
Mr Gupta said the whole team has been working hard since the store opened 18 months ago, but were surprised by the number of sparkly trophies their boss brought home to them.
“No one could expect it being such a small store here in Eaton, but the numbers we’ve been doing here are outstanding,” he said.
“Last year our Mother’s Day and Father’s Day sales were number one in the country.”
Mr Gupta followed up the success of his Eaton store with a number of runner up places awarded to his Mandurah store.
“Mandurah came second for the Highest Merchandise Sales award to Eaton,” he said proudly.
“They were also nominated for the Best Marketing.
“And last year they won Highest Merchandise Sales and Best Back of House.”
The Mandurah franchise is also well known for providing free meals for the homeless and disadvantaged, particularly at Christmas time.
Mr Gupta thanked his staff and customers for their contribution to the new additions to the trophy cabinet.
“This whole thing isn’t because of me,” he said.
“It is my staff members driving this.
“I’m lucky to have managers and servers like I do, they are the driving force and I’m just here to support them.”