German Doner Kebab has hired two senior executives from Domino’s Pizza Group UK — Simon Wallis, the pizza chain’s former chief transformation officer — and Robin Caley, who served as group development director at the pizza brand. Wallis is GDK’s CEO, succeeding Imran Sayeed, who has been promoted to Group CEO at Hero Brands’ F&B Division, which is GDK’s parent group. Caley will take on the role of chief development officer.
“As Imran advances to realise our vision for the Hero Brands Group, I’m delighted to have won over Simon and Robin to join GDK and our endeavour to grow the fast-casual brand of the future,” Athif Sarwar, chairman of Hero Brands, said in a company press release.
Hero Brands owns Choppaluna, Island Poke, Dirty Bones, and Sides, a concept jointly developed with YouTube superstars, the Sidemen.
“We are extremely pleased to be bringing in both Simon and Robin at such an exciting phase of the GDK journey,” Sarwar said in the release. “The next 12 months are going to be even bigger as we continue on our path of rapid development throughout the UK and international growth regions.”
“I am super excited to be joining the team at GDK to lead the business through its next stage of growth, and to build on the great foundations laid by our hard-working team members and franchise partners in fulfilling our ambition to create the undisputed #1 doner kebab brand on the planet,” Wallis said in the release.
Based in Glasgow, Scotland, GDK has grown to over 140 restaurants across the U.K., continental Europe, the Middle East and North America.
