“As a young man, when I first started in the company in 1978, my favorite part of the day was going to the restaurant just to smell the amazing scent of our fried chicken... you could smell it from all the way down the street. Mmmmmm.”

“I remember the time when we wanted to change from Shasta Cola to Pepsi in 1981, it was not sold anywhere at the time, as Pepsi was not very popular like today. The management told the restaurant team that we could sell it in the restaurant, and keep all the money we made out of it for ourselves as an incentive.”

“I remember how most of our customers were Saudi Airline staff as our restaurant was a walking distance from the old airport. And we would stay open until the last flight would arrive. This I remember very clearly was when I joined in 1978.”

“I will always remember the great joy while serving the families who were celebrating Eid, because we felt as if we were celebrating Eid with them. Afterwards, in 1984 as a team, a decision was made to work during the Eid break, as we previously never did."

“I remember the time we introduced sandwiches for the first time. The advertising campaign was called “You Asked For It … You Got It!” and it showed a customer comment asking for a sandwich selection with the signature of the customer shown. So many customers stood at the poster trying to determine if that was their signature and feeling really proud that they did write such a request earlier.”

“In 1990, during the World Cup match between Cameron vs. England, the match was during the Eid period, which is a very busy period for us at ALBAIK that requires tremendous time and effort. Along with 3 team members, I stayed up late watching the match and because of that I went to work late the next day. When we arrived at the office headquarters, the General Manager at the time told us not to enter the office because we were late. Even though we explained the reasons for our tardiness, he did not accept it, which set an example for other team members on coming to work on time, even though we were needed to be at work that day. This is just a one scenario of how important work commitment is and punctuality.”

“ALBAIK is very secretive. When we started the concept of sandwiches, only 2 people knew about this new menu introduction. Kitchens in all restaurants were re-designed and fitted, materials ordered, and even the marketing campaign developed without anyone knowing what was going on till one week before the launch.”