El Jannah and Till Payments have formalised a partnership to deliver the ultimate customer payment experience across the expanding family of El Jannah stores. The new, tailored platform combines every payment method into one, connected solution.
A satisfying collaboration
Brett Houldin, El Jannah CEO, said “El Jannah’s legendary charcoal chicken pairs perfectly with our famous garlic sauce – the partnership with the Till Payments team felt a bit similar – like two great, complementary things coming together to deliver a fantastic result.”
“We are on a path of expansion to share our cult-status menu and customer experience with more people than ever before. We have new El Jannah stores opening up in various, targeted locations throughout Australia. Having the best technology in place is a critical step to enabling us to scale the El Jannah family of stores and share our food with more people,” he said.
CEO Till Payments, Shadi Haddad, whose favourite El Jannah menu item is the half chicken plate with chilli sauce, echoed Brett’s thoughts about the collaboration.
“As both El Jannah and Till are in hyper-growth phases, the partnership is based on mutual understanding and respect for one another,” Shadi said.
From humble beginnings: Two business success stories
Welcoming and supporting their people, along with a history of establishing and growing a business from the ground-up – the El Jannah and Till Payments teams have a lot in common.
The El Jannah legend was born in Granville, Sydney in the late 1990s, when founders Andre and Carole Estephan pursued a dream to start their own business preparing and selling simply delicious, Lebanese-Australian food, with their legendary charcoal chicken at the heart of the menu.
El Jannah food was always made to be shared, and now it’s being shared with a rapidly expanding group of adoring customers, as one of Australia’s fastest growing quick service restaurants.
“As a team, something we often say is: people either love our food, or they haven’t tried it yet. There is something special about an El Jannah feast, and that’s why it’s attracted a cult-following customer base for over 20 years,” Brett Houldin said.
“I joined the company in 2020 and have hand-picked some seriously talented people to join the already successful El Jannah family. Tyler Mason, our IT Manager, has been working closely with the Till Payments team to launch this new era of technology for El Jannah and we are super excited about it. We know it’s going to deliver the best customer experience for our El Jannah feasters and our Franchise Partners,” he said.
Till Payments: an authentic transaction history
Like El Jannah, the growing Till Payments business came from humble beginnings when Till’s co-founders innovated unattended payments for parking meters in 2012.
The Till team family is now 300+ people, working in offices across Australia, New Zealand, North America, The UK and Europe. They partner with thousands of merchants globally across multiple industries including retail, hospitality, grocery, automotive and health.
Till helps small, medium and large businesses accept payments any way they want by connecting all existing platforms into a single all-powerful backend.
“Customer Experience is where the hearts, minds, and wallets of consumers will be won. Which is precisely why we have developed a platform that integrates fast, secure, seamless payments, plug and play terminals, and unified commerce to drive sales and sustained growth for our partners like El Jannah,” Shadi Haddad said.
“As a customer-obsessed business, El Jannah’s success is our success, both now and in the future. We’re excited to deliver not only a bespoke payment solution, but partner with El Jannah on future goals and growth plans for their business. We understand the needs of their growing business and are committed to providing El Jannah’s Franchise Partners with a best-in-market payment experience for their adoring, loyal customers.” Shadi said.
Values-based businesses align
As a family-founded and family-operated business, values are important to the El Jannah team.
“We are a welcoming, inclusive business – we are about people, sharing food, sharing ideas and being supportive of each other and our cult-core customer base. We like to have some fun too – we are serious about El Jannah as a business, but we typically don’t take ourselves too seriously,” Tyler Mason, El Jannah IT Manager said.
“When I first started the dialogue with the Till Payments team I could see we were well-aligned from the start – in terms of our values and our growth phase: They got us.
The Till team are El Jannah customers themselves, they know what we offer, how important customer experience is to us, and where the business is heading in terms of expansion and scalability,” Tyler said.
Plenty of other respected brands, including IGA, are Till collaborators too. In the quick service restaurant sector, El Jannah are pioneering this innovative technology.
Supported to succeed
As the El Jannah family of restaurants continues to expand, Ben Hemphill, Head of Franchising, is all about setting up existing and new Franchise Partners for on-going success.
“Launching new, streamlined payment technology is great news for our Franchise Partner family. We walk the talk about the initial and on-going support we give to our El Jannah Franchise Partners. They get the best, industry-leading support, systems and processes to make their life easier and their customer experience consistently welcoming,” Ben said.
El Jannah has a 7-step recipe for success for new Franchise Partners and are currently welcoming enquiries. Want in?
Find out more and enquire today.
Hot tip: Oh and want a hot tip from CEO Till Payments, Shadi Haddad, to take that half chicken plate and chilli sauce to the next level? Mix the chilli AND garlic sauce for a true taste sensation. Thanks Shadi, we love your thinking.
Feeling hungry now? Order an El Jannah feast, or find out more about our current Franchise Partner opportunities.
