Fast Food Franchise CFO of the Year 2024 (UAE): Darrell Edon

PJP Investments Group (PJPIG) is the master franchisee of Papa John’s Pizza in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan, which currently owns and operates over 120 Papa John’s Pizza restaurants across these territories. As CFO, Darrell Edon drives profitability, corporate development, and revenue growth for the goliath brand’s middle eastern operations. Darrell’s exceptional work for PJP Investments Group hasn’t gone unnoticed and we are delighted to be recognising his achievements within our Global CFO Excellence Awards 2024.

Today, PJP Investments Group is led by CEO Tapan Vaidya with more than 1,000 employees of 29 different nationalities across its middle eastern territories. Alongside having hard-working staff who are passionate about delivering world-class pizza, the company implements the most modern developmental practices and state-of-the-art technology to enhance its in-restaurant operations.

Originally from Leeds, England, Darrell Edon joined PJPIG as CFO back in May 2019, telling us that the five years he has spent there so far have “absolutely flown by”. He shares how it all began: “A private equity company came in and bought the brand [PJPIG] from its previous owners in Jawad, and at that time, it had 44 stores in the UAE alone. They had no office, no IT system, no ERP system, nothing. I remember there being no finance team. It was a proper startup business. I remember doing most of my interviews for my team in the lobby of a hotel here in Dubai because we had no office at the time. So, looking back, it was 44 restaurants in May of 2019, and now in May of 2024, there are 125 restaurants across three countries, with India to come.”

It is clear how thrilled Darrell is to have been involved in and seen such development of the group over the past five years. However, he shares that although PJPIG is flourishing and experiencing remarkable growth, this hasn’t come without its challenges. He highlights “COVID and supply chain issues and now the ongoing troubles in the rest of the Middle East” as hurdles in particular, but the company has faced these head on and come out thriving on the other side, with Darrell adding how “it’s always been a learning experience for us”.

“I’ve always been a believer that finance can be seen in two ways: you can be the gatekeeper and just say ‘no’, which is always the easy option, but being involved and understanding how a business works from an operational and commercial perspective to see why that might change your decision is something that really excites and focuses me – to take a risk on signing a new brand or moving into a new country. Just because your Excel model says it going to work doesn’t mean it’s going to work.”

With his career spanning over two decades, Darrell expresses how the food and beverage (F&B) industry is where he found his true calling, citing, “I enjoy what I do. I love the F&B industry. It’s such a fun place to be involved in. I can’t see myself moving away from the F&B industry. It’s just something I’ve got such a big passion for now, to help grow and develop it.”

Prior to joining PJPIG, Darrell worked his first F&B and CFO role at Gourmet Gulf for over two years. Before that were his first roles in the Middle East, as Business Planning Director at Fawaz Alhokair Group, and then as Group Finance Director at Marka Holding. Earlier in his career, Darrell worked as Head of Commercial Finance at Monsoon Accessorize in the UK between 2008 and 2012. Rewind to the earlier years and his first “real” job was at Scottish & Newcastle between 1996 and 2001, where he gained a whole rounded experience in finance, IT, and business, laying the foundations of his career as it is today.

Now, Darrell is very excited about the future that lies ahead for PJP Investments Group, with ambitious expansion plans including the opening of nearly 1,000 Papa John’s restaurants in the next decade, with the first planned to be in Iraq and India this year. The group will also be exploring different technologies to take its service offering to the next level and appeal to younger generations, including AI in the form of delivery robots and facial recognition to check all pizzas are of high standard.

In terms of his own professional plans for the future, Darrell leaves us with the following food for thought: “For me, I always want to keep learning. I’m continuing to develop and build new skills.

“Are robots going to take over finance? Not quite yet. But how do you continue to develop to make sure that we’re now meeting all these new demands, meeting all this new technology and using that technology? I look at some of the junior accountants, and in five or ten years, their roles might not be the same. So, how do we make sure that those skillsets are transferred for me as a CFO and everybody else?”

For business enquiries contact Darrell Edon via darrell.edon@pjprestaurants.com