Fresh Pacific Flavours

IT’S NICETO MEETY O U

W H E R EIt All

B E G A NHaving an American Dad, we would spend our summers

in his native California and frequently visit my Aunt in

Kauai, where I got my first taste of a poké bowl.

Fast forward 15 years, and, bored of the monotonous lunch

choices whilst at work I spotted a gap in the market for a

vibrant, fresh and healthy grab and go concept. I started

selling poké bowls across various street food markets in

London and knew there was a customer demand for it.

That’s what led to the opening of our first site in Kingly

Street, Soho in 2016 and Island Poké was born.

We’re now well positioned to grow into one of the

largest players in this category and we’re looking

for the right partners to join us on that journey.

Hopefully from what you’ve read, seen and heard from

me or the team, you’ll know this isn’t just a business for

me, it is a passion and a mission to change how we source

and eat our food in the grab and go sector. I’m proud to

say that through Island Poké we’ve started to action that

change, but its only the start, and that’s why I want to work

with you.

JAMES GOULD-PORTER

“

”

We want to work with like-minded businesses and

individuals that want to push boundaries and impact

change, whilst having fun along the way and, of course,

run successful businesses. I truly believe that by bringing

motivated and talented people together we can achieve

great things and that’s the reason I feel franchising is our

best path for growth.

Poké isn’t just a short term fad, but a long term trend

with rapid growth, and as the leading UK Poké brand

and one of the largest in Europe we’re at the forefront of

that growth. I’ve built a great team of people, with both

domestic & international experience in franchising, and

I’m working with investors that have and are growing

businesses globally through a partner model.

We are perfectly primed to welcome more franchise

partners, and I hope that you join me on this journey.

£6.4mIN SALES

2019

577%ROI

CANARY WHARF

#1POKÉ BRAND

ON DELIVEROO

132%CAGR

F R O MLittle

S E E D S

In 4 years we’ve opened 16

locations in the UK & France,

with a pipeline of +40 across

3 European countries

W H YI S L A N DP O K É ?

Fresh And Healthy

“Flavoured Deliciously, “under the category of mind

blowing” – these are just some of the words written about

our poké by press and influencers. And our customers say

the same. We stand out because we combine high quality,

fresh ingredients with a unique combination of Pacific

flavours and secret recipes. Tuna and pineapple who

knew... we did, and now so do our fans.

Fully Customisable

Your poké your way. Customisation is now a must for

a hospitality brand. Lucky for us we can offer 48000

different combinations of poké with our build your own

bowl menu. The choice is totally our customer’s, meaning

they can have a different poké everyday... we do!

Instagrammable

Millennials and Gen Z get their inspiration and their

reputation through social media. Our poké is always the

star of any selfie or food pic – brightly coloured fresh

ingredients look like we’ve captured the pacific tropics in

a bowl, that will allow Instagram lovers to snap away.

A Moment Of Escape

We can make a poké bowl in 45 seconds, so if customers

want speed then we can deliver it. But we’ve found our

customers want more than this ; they want an experience,

they want escapism, they want an Island Poké experience.

They’re giving us anywhere from 1 to 10minutes of their

day and we want them to feel something different, we

want them to be energised by visiting us, we want them to

escape the high street, office, mall or wherever and come

to our Island for a break.

Our People

We’re unique because our people are unique. They bring

that high energy to work everyday that our customers love

and keep coming back for. We forget the service script

and our teams are genuinely interested in people and

how their day is. We encourage interaction even at the

expenses of speed, because each customer deserves our

time, plus if we’re doing our job the queuing is part of the

fun experience.

W H YP E O P L E

Love It

£10.35ATV

22%LABOUR %

1.6IPT

70%STRONG GP

RETAIL UNITS

A1

WE WORK HARD FOR THE MONEY.

£250KCAPEX

FROM

We Hire On Personality & Attitude

You can’t train a personality, so we hire based on

personality. We’ve spent years making sure our staff can

focus on the most important thing... our customers! Our

recruitment process has been cultivated to make sure we

get the best people, and we’re proud to say not everyone

is a Island Poké person, but those that are, are our stars.

We Never Stop Developing

We don’t just train our teams day 1,2 or for the first week,

for us training on day 100 or 200 is just as important.

In short, we never stop training and learning with our

people. We run constant workshops at our Pokéademy and

have a stream of online content that can be accessed from

learning to assessment tools.

Innovation Comes From Everyone

We want innovators all around us that can challenge us,

keep us moving forward and deliver in all areas. Innovation

can and should come from all parts of the business from

our Kitchen Ambassadors to our founder James. We hope

and expect our partners to be some of our best innovators

in the future, and that’s why we have forums and platforms

that allow for ideas to be shared on a regular basis, and

a test area that we can try anything that will improve the

Island Poké system.

Interaction Is Our Oxygen

If we don’t interact with customers then we aren’t Island

Poké. If we don’t interact with our people then we aren’t

Island Poké. We hire people that want to talk, sing and

even shout sometimes. We want people to have a voice so we

make sure we give them a platform to do so and deliver for

our customers. From unscripted training, to community

feedback forums, customer workshops and focus groups,

everything we do is about how we can interact and stay

connected with people. The same goes for our Franchise

partners, we want your voices too.

Family Is Our Foundation

The saying goes ‘No man is an Island’, well no Poké person

is on an Island alone, we each have our Island family. Our

family culture means that we respect and support each

other. We look for qualities in our people like loyalty,

honesty and trust to help curate, maintain and develop our

family culture. We hope to welcome you into our family

and watch you develop your own Island family.

Our High-Energy Drives Us To Remain #1

Island Poké is growing and nothing is going to stop that...

not even Coronavirus, we opened 5 units in France & the

UK since the pandemic started. Our fuel to achieve this

is the high energy of the people we hire and service we

deliver. It’s what makes us different on the high street and

its what drives us to deliver on our vision.

IT’S IN OUR DNA

K E E P I N GIt

S I M P L EFully Managed Supply Chain

We work tirelessly with our suppliers to deliver the best product and prices to

our stores and customers. We have a network of suppliers that deliver quality

products on a daily basis from our central kitchen and other distribution

points. Together we’re always looking for quality and efficiencies in product

and logistics.

No Knife In The Business

We welcome chefs of course, but with little to no prep required on site they

can leave their knives at the door because we don’t need them. Our system

and processes have been created to ensure consistency, quantity and quality are

delivered every time to our customers.

We Embrace Technology To Simplify Our Operations

From click and collect, to the easiest management tools, we’ve made sure

that working with us is as simple and easy as possible. We’re the first Poké

concept in the UK to offer an App and we run our back-of-house totally on

digital platforms, so as well as the knives, you can leave the paper and pen

at the door.

T H I S I S

H O W

W E L I V E

O U RPurpose & Values

TO CREATE LIFELONG “ALOHA AMBASSADORS”

AND POKÉ FANS ACROSS THE WORLD, BY DELIVERING FRESH

PACIFIC FLAVOURS AND EXPERIENCES THAT CONNECT

WITH OUR CUSTOMERS BEYOND THE BOWL.

Brands and companies want to talk to everyone about their

Mission & Values – well forget that! We like to keep things

simple, so we’ve broken down our Island life to a Purpose

and here it is :

This purpose drives all that we do everyday, just as it

has to be for everyone that joins our Ohana. With great

people working towards a single purpose we can achieve

great things together. So come be an Ambassador and take

Island life beyond the bowl!

Oh

an

a (F

amily

) · Energetic · Innovative · Going Beyond the B

owl

O H A N A(Family)

This is how we work in our

Ohana. People are the best bit

of hospitality, and we welcome

everyone into our Ohana.

WE VALUE FRIENDSHIP

WE CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER

WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER – WE ARE ONE BIG ISLAND!

WE LISTEN TO EACH OTHER

EVERYONE HAS A VOICE

WE ARE EMPATHETIC

WE ALWAYS DO THE RIGHT THING BY OUR TEAMS AND FANS

WE ARE A PEOPLE FIRST OHANA

WE KNOW WHAT IS EXPECTED OF EACH OTHER AND WANT TO GET THE BEST OUT OF EVERYONE

WE HELP EACH OTHER TO BE BETTER – THAT INCLUDES OTHER ISLANDS TOO!

WE ARE HONEST WITH EACH OTHER

OBVIOUSLY, OUR FANS ARE PART OF OUR OHANA!

Island life for all goes beyond

the bowl. It’s about striving

to deliver something new and

impactful to our Ohana

and our customers.

G O I N GBeyond The

B O W L

WE CONSTANTLY WANT TO LEARN & GROW

WE ARE IMPACTFUL IN EVERYTHING WE DO

WE MAKE IT HAPPEN

WE ARE GENEROUS IN EVERY WAY

WE ARE HUMBLE

WE ASPIRE FOR FREEDOM, BALANCE & HARMONY

WE BUILD A CONNECTION WITH OUR FANS AND OUR COMMUNITY

WE BELIEVE IN ISLAND POKÉ

WE ARE MORE THAN BOWL MAKERS

WE ALWAYS WANT TO MAKE YOUR DAY

OUR FANS COME BACK FOR MORE THAN A BOWL

Island living is fun, and so is

Island Poké! We leave boring

at the door; bad moods, forget

it, they can stay outside. For

us, work time is play time;

that’s why people come to us.

WE COME ALIVE IN NATURE

WE ARE UNCONVENTIONAL & PLAYFUL

WE ARE ALWAYS POSITIVE TO EACH OTHER AND OUR FANS

WE ARE PERSONABLE

WE ARE SMILEY

THE FRIDGE IS OUR STAGE

THE BOWL IS OUR CANVASS

WE BUILD BOWLS WITH CONFIDENCE, ENGAGEMENT, AND ENTHUSIASM

WE CREATE AN EXPERIENCE THAT CONSTANTLY SURPRISES AND ENGAGES WITH OUR FANS

WE WANT OUR FANS TO FEEL THEY ARE AWAY ON HOLIDAY

WE CREATE NOISE

WE ARE VIBE MAKERS

ENERGETIC

Standing still isn’t for us.

We’ve always innovated and we

can’t stop. We want ideas from

everywhere, so we ask everyone

to bring their thinking cap

to the Island.

ALWAYS STRIVING TO BE & DO BETTER

WE TAKE RISKS AND LEARN FROM THE OUTCOMES

WE ARE CREATIVE IN OUR APPROACHES AND SOLUTIONS

WE EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY THROUGH A PEOPLE-FIRST APPROACH

WE INNOVATE FROM LISTENING TO DATA

WE STRIVE TO PUSH THE BOUNDARIES IN ALL OUR INNOVATION

INNOVATION IS AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING WE DO

INNOVATIVE

WE COME INALL SHAPES

AND SIZES

KI

OS

K

20SQ METERS

FROM

GR

AB

&G

O

40-60SQ METERS

FROM

DI

NE

IN

60-100+

SQ METERS

FROM

MEET THE TEAM Our Board

TOM MILLER

Commercial Director

Tom has run a number of startups from an operations, legal and financial stand point. He gained his chartered accountancy at Baker Tilly and advised on the sale of The Salt Yard Group to Alcuin Capital when they were at the six restaurant stage. Tom co-founded Island Poké to provide finance and strategic operations support as well as supporting James with day-to-day operations and decision making.

ATHIF SARWAR

Chairman of Hero Brands

Athif Sarwar is the CEO of HERO Brands and runs his family’s extensive business portfolio. This includes £250m turnover cash and carry business and a franchise network of close to 600 retail stores, which makes him one of the UK’s biggest independent franchisors. It was Athif that saw the potential of GDK whilst in Pakistan – in just three years he has turned it into an international success story.

CHRIS MILLER

Founder & CEO White Rabbit Fund

Chris began his career working in Private Equity and Corporate Finance focusing on expanding hospitality and luxury brands. He then became Commercial Director for the Soho House Group working on the expansion of clubs and restaurants around the world. In 2016 he launched White Rabbit Fund as a hospitality development platform supporting early stage chefs and restauranteurs to launch and grow their business. Since inception they have supported the creation of 17 restaurants across 3 brands include Indian concept ‘Kricket’, Hawaiian grab-and-go brand ‘Island Poké’ and fresh Pasta restaurant ‘Lina Stores’.

JAMES GOULD-PORTER

Founder

After leaving the art world. James trained under one of the original nobu chefs in a small Izakaya in south London. He then left to pursue his idea of Island Poké, trading as one of the UK’s first poké brands on the street food market scene. Since then he has lead Island Poké in virtually all departments from property acquisition, product procurement and service. Going forward James will continue to lead the business, with a special attention to business development.

NICK SCHAPIRA

Franchise Director

Nick joined in September 2020 having spent the past 10 years peddling pasta around the world for Jamie Oliver and Vapiano. Nick built and ran the International business for Jamie making it the most successful UK casual dining brand to leave these shores. He then moved to Vapiano to run their international business of +150 restaurants across +30 countries. From pasta to poké, Nick has joined us to drive our growth through franchising partnerships, and help you become a poké person and have your own Island... Poké.

DAVID TESTER

Head of Marketing

David’s experience is equally rooted in both the hospitality and retail sectors. Having worked with global giant’s like Compass Group and Primark respectively, where his remit has always been centred around insight & innovation across brand, product and environment, he is well positioned to bring to life creative brand & marketing initiatives that land with impact.

GEORGINA CAVENDISH

Finance Director

Georgina has headed up the finance function of several well established restaurant groups, Hotels and leisure businesses concepts in the industry, formerly of Benito’s Hat, First Restaurant Group & Hilton Worldwide. An ACCA Qualified accountant, Georgina has a passion for working in the restaurant sector.

RICHARD ZIVKOVIC

Operations Director

Richard joined us in the middle of 2019. He is a seasoned operator and was fundamental in driving standards, and customer service for Abokado, Costa, Be At One and Pret a Manger.

OUR HERO TEAM

NASIR HAMID

Global Supply Chain Director

Nasir Hamid has been a vital member of the GDK senior team since joining the brand in 2016.

Playing an invaluable role as Supply Chain Director, Nasir’s tireless work ensures the smooth

running of Hero Brands operations throughout the globe. In addition, Nasir boasts over a decade

of experience in the retail and wholesale industry, bringing with him a varied skill set that

includes the delivery of KPIs, adhering to demanding time scales, and creating a customer-

focused approach.

IMRAN SAYEED

GDK International CEO

Imran Sayeed is GDK International CEO. Over the course of a 20 year international career, he

has received numerous awards and accolades from major brands such as Yum Restaurants where

he was Chief Restaurant Excellence Officer, Pakistan and worked with brands including KFC,

Pizza Hut and Long John Silvers across the world.

MURRAY WILLOWS

Hero Global Marketing Officer

Murray Willows is Global Chief Marketing Officer. With over 20 years’ experience in the industry,

Murray was previously the chief marketing officer for TGI Fridays International. Other previous

roles were at Yum! Brands, where he was VP and CMO for Pizza Hut in the UK, VP for marketing

for Pizza Hut International and chief concept officer for KFC in South Africa.

SUSIE MCCAFFERTY

Brand On-Boarding Director

Brand On-Boarding Director Suzie McCafferty built two of her own franchise brands into

international successes. With nearly 20 years’ industry experience, Suzie is an accredited affiliate

member of the British Franchise Association and its regional chair for Scotland.

JON CULLEN

Global Franchise Director

Global Franchise Director Jon Cullen has spent much of the last 15 years working with International

Brands coming into the UK market and working with brands to find Master Franchisee’s and

Area Development Franchisees, Distributor Partners for Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and

the USA.

JOII SUSHI

Our Fish Partner

Island living is all about fresh fish caught that day. So at Island Poké we do our best to deliver

that fresh fish quality to our fans. To do that we’ve teamed up with the #1 Sushi supplier out

there - Joii Sushi. Joii Sushi are totally unique in the depth of resource they have from a technical,

sustainability and sourcing perspective setting them apart from any one else out there. As partners

we’re totally aligned in our ethical sourcing ethos and they make sure we have traceability on our

fish throughout the supply chain.

BLOCK1

Design Studio

Block1 are our selected design studio and they’ll be at your service too. Why? Not only have they

worked with some amazing brands like Brewdog, Nando’s and Leon, as well as being an award

winning studio, most importantly they just get Island Poké. They understand that we and our

customers want escapism and a fun experience from Island Poké, we think they deliver this in

their designs and materials used. They’ve been a great support for us and will be for you as well.

CODE ACADEMY

Learning & Development

We said we hire and work with people based on them having that Poké personality, we can do

that because we are 100% committed to having amazing Learning & Development programs in

the Island Poké system and that’s where our partners Code step in. Code are industry leaders in

L&D and we’ve partnered with them to deliver programs for everyone involved with Island life.

Code’s programs ensure that L&D is always active and never stops. Code’s programs help to make

sure we can deliver the best in class business and customer experience through our people.

L E A N I N GOn Our

N E T W O R K

GROWINGTOGETHER

SUPPORTINGYour

B U S I N E S S

We’ll Provide You With:

INTERACTIVE

GUIDES

&

MANUALS

BUSINESS &

AUDIT SUPPORT

MANAGEMENT &

REPORTINGTOOLS

OUR POKÉADEMY IS THE BEATING HEART OF ALL OUR TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES

WE

’LL

HE

LP

YO

U: Become An Islander

Working at Island Poké isn’t for everyone, as we’ve said we hire on personality.

We believe through our Pokéademy we can train anyone the skills they’ll need to

work with us as long as they bring their personality and energy. We’ve worked

with industry experts to provide a comprehensive induction and training program

of which you’ll receive: Full Island Poké Business training; Unit Management

training; and Learning & Assessment Tools on an on going basis.

Continue To Push The Boundaries

Our Annual training calendar includes: NPD training, Sales & Marketing

Training for Campaigns, Qualitative training programs and competitions and

Training Measures & Rankings.

Share Best Practice

Part of being a franchise network is sharing best practice. We can learn as much

from you as you can from us. To do this we host and run: Island Poké Training

communities : Seminars: Cross Country & Business exchange programmes:

Networking events: Expert Presentations & Panel events.

O U RIsland

F A M I L YWe’ll support you with the entire employee life cycle

including recruitment and on-boarding all the way

through to exit. We’re pretty proud of our reward

and recognition program including hosted events,

company awards and prizes, making us an employer

of choice, and we’ll help you instil this culture this

with your teams.

You’ll Receive:

Recruitment & Assessment Tools

Development & Appraisal Systems

Employee Welfare Standards & Guidance on the Island Way, as well as HR Management Tools

Marketing Tools

Our marketing department will provide you with all the tools you need to

create a lasting connection with your customers beyond the bowl. Island Poké

is an experience, and you’ll have access to: brand guidelines, marketing &

social media guidelines, our tone of voice, and blueprints for campaigns with

proven ROI, plus events that have impact and drive engagement.

Best-In-Class Photography

Our bowls make it easy as they look fantastic at any time, so our job is just to

capture them along with our people and fantastic experiences around Island

Poké. You and your team will have access to: Image library; POS Materials ;

Brand tools and Marketing materials including Video contents.

Marketing Calendar

Through our Marketing & Communications Calendar we ensure that were

all speaking from the same page within our team and amongst our partners.

We engage in planning and brainstorming sessions with our partners, we

run seminars and workshops to share best practice and learn from marketing

experts in and out of hospitality. All of this will be available to you and your

team and we hope you’ll be able to contribute as well.

A DEEPERConnection

A L W A Y SData

D R I V E NWe Listen To What Our Customers Are Saying:

The most important opinion is that of our customers, so we want to hear what

they say. We’ve partnered with service providers to deliver us and our franchise

partners: Direct Customer Feedback; Mystery Diner Reports ; Social Media

Aggregation Operational reports.

We Deep Dive Into The Data

We’ve got a dedicated function that just looks at our data and interprets it for

our respective teams and partners to use, you’ll have access to: Performance

KPI’s, Productivity analysis, Real Estate Analysis and People report.

Striving To Do Better

The world can change rapidly and 2020 has show us that more than ever. We are

a nimble and entrepreneurial business and want to remain so. That’s why we

were able to develop and deploy alternative revenue streams like DIY boxes and

Dark Kitchens within weeks of the Covid Lockdown. You’ll have access to our

additional models and revue streams including our very own cookbook.

WE’RE DATA OBSESSED AND USE

IT TO INFORM ALL OUR DECISIONS.

T H E P E R F E C TP O K É P A R T N E R

T H EPerfect Poké

P A R T N E RHospitality Experience Is A Must

We want to work with companies and individuals

that can bring experience and expertise with them

to their Island, so current or previous experience

in Hospitality is essential.

Be An Expert In Your Region

Whether its a Region, Country or city, we expect

you to know your area and have a network of

contacts to leverage to establish your Island Poké

business.

Have Your Own Treasure Chest of £1M

Having liquidity to start and fund your business is

essential. We look for partners that have enough

liquidity to open and provide operational cash flow

for the first 3 units as a minimum

Share An Appetite For Growth

(Minimum of 5 sites) – We are looking for our

franchise partners to develop an area of 5 or more

Island Poké’s. We’ll grant and work with you on an

exclusive development area basis and support you

to grow.

Be An Island Poké Person

Most importantly we’ve got to get on. From

this presentation you’ll see that our people are

everything and we expect the same from you. We

will have ups and down, but if we are aligned in

our vision, goals and expectations we know we’ll

have a great long term partnership together. For

us there is no franchisor<>franchisee, there’s only

Island Poké.

HERE’S WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

WE’D LOVE YOU TO JOIN US ON OUR JOURNEY.

T H A N KYou