From Samoa to award winning Wendy’s manager
Samoan Lui Lam, who is the manager of Wendy's Mt Wellington, in Auckland, has won the gold award in the "Every customer counts" Awards. He was flown to Texas, USA for the awards ceremony with his wife Venita.
It was the first time Lui had been out of the country since arriving here from Samoa just over 10 years ago.
Lui was up against 6,600 Wendyʼs Old Fashioned Hamburgers restaurants globally for the award.
For the last eight months, all of the Wendyʼs restaurants around the world have been put through their paces to find the top 14 restaurants globally. The annual awards evaluate all Wendyʼs restaurants on their service, quality, cleanliness, food safety and leadership performance.
The award is a huge achievement for Lui, who began his Wendyʼs career as a “fry boy” when he first arrived in New Zealand from Samoa in 1997. A hard worker by nature, Lui used to catch two buses and walk for half an hour to get to work each day.
Since then he has worked his way up through the Wendyʼs franchise to become Manager of the Mt Wellington restaurant.
“It is important to challenge yourself and to strive to achieve things,” says Lui. “I had a goal for my restaurant to be the best in the world, and I’m just so proud to have won this award,” says Lui.
Over the years Lui has won a number of Wendyʼs awards, including the Lendich Employee of Choice Award, and the Talent Scout award, which recognises and promotes talent within the company.
Lui jokes that until he started at Wendyʼs, he had never won an award – not even at primary school!
His prize includes USD$5000 and a Rolex watch and the rest of the team at Wendyʼs Mt Wellington will also receive cash prizes to acknowledge their effort and support.
Apart from travelling from Samoa to New Zealand, this is the first time that Lui and his wife have been outside of the country.
At the same awards Wendyʼs New Zealand was honoured for its marketing achievements. Marketing Manager, Fay Stretch won the Diamond Award for Marketing Excellence for outstanding development and promotion of unique products, which has led to strong sales growth.
Wendyʼs New Zealand is locally owned and operated by the Lendich family, who share the franchise’s passion for exceptional customer service.
