Juffair, Manama · Bahrain · Available

Leon Erasmus Rheeder

Brand Operations Development · Concept Creator · AI Operational Integration Strategist

I turn complex hospitality operations into capable teams, stronger margins, better guest experiences, and brands people remember.

“I will never ask you or a team member to do a job I haven’t done myself.”
The promise. Dishpit to division head. Not a theory. A receipt.
WhatsApp LeonFor restaurant groupsWalk the 30 yearsRésumé
Leon Erasmus Rheeder, seated, black and white portrait
Thirty years on the floor before the title.

Who I am

The operator who has done every job in the building.

I’m Leon Erasmus Rheeder. I started as a dishwasher in Bloemfontein. Thirty-plus years later, I’ve run restaurants across South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Lebanon.

The range is the point. I’ve run coffee shops. I’ve run a 300-seater casual dining restaurant. I’ve run one of the busiest KFCs & Nando’s in South Africa. I’ve run a multi-concept food hub in Uganda, an upmarket fine dining café in Riffa, and Crazy Pizza, one of the top pizza concepts around. Different formats and different groups, and the same fundamentals every time: P&L, operations, and openings done properly.

These days it also means AI: predictive workflows and practical automation, laid onto operations that already work. Same instinct, sharper tools. That work lives at GionCorp Enterprises.

What drives me is simple: the people make the brand. I clear obstacles, tool people properly, and mentor them past what they thought they could do. I’m direct, I’m loyal, and I have no patience for theatre that never reaches the P&L.

WhereJuffair, Manama, Bahrain. Self-sponsored resident. No relocation friction for local work.
Floor time30+ years. Eleven brands. Seven countries.
Learned on the jobPresident Steyn High School, 1998. The trade was learned in the building, one station at a time.

The receipts

Numbers I am willing to put on the page.

Career averages are labelled as career averages. No single brand’s best year is blended in to flatter them.

30+Years in the building, dishpit upward.
2×Crazy Pizza Bahrain opened at double its revenue projection, fully booked with waiting lists.
32 / 20Food and labour cost, in percent, held for three years across 11 IHOP restaurants.
97.5%IHOP staff retention over four years on a 450+ team. Career average: 93.8%.
8 / 5Openings across five countries: seven new stores and a central kitchen.
$20M+Annual revenue portfolio run at IHOP, across Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Lebanon.

Career averages: 31.79% food cost and 1.3% wastage. Guest satisfaction 92% at Sash Café. Franchisee of the Year: IHOP once (Alshaya as franchisee) and Cape Town Fish Market twice.

For restaurant groups

What a growing group asks for. What I can show.

Multi-concept operations, a new brand launch and more expansion behind it. Each point below is a record, with the film where one exists.

Many concepts, one standard

11 IHOP restaurants across four countries and $20M+ a year. A 16-store, 650+ person group at Café Java's. Eleven brands in thirty years.

Commercial control

Food cost 32% and labour 20% held for three straight years, gross margin above 70%. At Sash Café, F&B sales up 35% year on year with expenses down 13%.

Hands-on, leads by example

Dishwasher to Division Head of Operations. I will not ask anyone to do a job I have not done myself.

Teams that stay and grow

97.5% of a 450+ team kept over four years, 26 people promoted into senior management, about 45 hired and trained for the Crazy Pizza launch.

Standards and guest experience

100% audit compliance from day one at Crazy Pizza. 92% guest satisfaction and Best Café 2021 at Sash Café. Franchise audits passed three years running at IHOP.

Watch: Sash Café menu development

Openings, launches, expansion

8 openings in 5 countries. Crazy Pizza Bahrain: first hire to opening in 3.5 months, at double its revenue projection. A new market in Lebanon and a first central kitchen in Kenya.

Watch: Crazy Pizza opening record

GCC experience

Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Lebanon, plus East Africa and South Africa. Self-sponsored Bahrain resident, available immediately.

Watch: IHOP Avenues, Bahrain

Entrepreneurial mindset

I run GionCorp Enterprises: concept design, SOP libraries, menu development and AI workflow tools for restaurant clients. At Sash Café I built Ramadan gathering boxes as a new revenue line.

Watch: Sash Café gathering box

How I lead

The people make the brand.

Motivate them, train them, care about them, and make winners out of them. Then they treat the guest properly. And if the guest is treated properly, they come back.

A Marriott principle I have kept for decades. My own version is shorter: the people make the brand.

Margin defence

Full P&L. Food-cost ceilings. Expense taken out without stripping the guest. Waste treated as a management failure, not a kitchen shrug.

Openings

Concept, layout, equipment, menu, recipe cards, training and the SOP manual — then the first service, with the operator still on the floor.

Standards

HACCP, food safety, brand audit, CHAMPS. Compliance from day one is cheaper than a rescue after the inspector leaves.

People systems

Training pipelines, succession, cross-cultural teams. Twenty-six senior promotions at IHOP did not happen by poster.

Supply and cash

Vendor audits, central kitchens, import logistics, delivery channels when the dining room goes quiet.

AI, used as a tool

Workflow, forecasting and admin automation on top of an operation that already has a standard. Not a slide deck in place of a pre-shift.

CHAMPSMicrosSevenRoomsPilotGulpSurveGumnutGoldHACCPMicrosoft 365

The climb · 1996 to today

Eleven brands. Their houses, my standard.

Drag, swipe, or use the arrows. Each mark sits top right, the same size. Colours follow the public brands. Nothing here is an official brand site.

GionCorp logo

01 / 11
Apr 2022 – Nov 2023 · Jun 2024 – present
Bahrain

GionCorp

Operations consultant, concept design and AI integration

  • Restaurant Design and AI Operational Integration Strategist, April 2022 to November 2023.
  • Freelance operations consultant and concept design from June 2024, building SOP libraries, training frameworks, operating models and P&L tools for QSR, casual and premium dining clients.
  • Food styling and menu photography sit with the same practice.
GionCorpMenu photoshoots and food styling
Crazy Pizza logo

02 / 11
Dec 2023 – Jun 2024
Al Zain Hospitality · Manama, Bahrain

Crazy Pizza

Division Head of Operations

  • First hire through opening in about three and a half months, after a six-month construction delay.
  • Opening revenue landed at double the projection. The book filled, with waiting lists through the early months.
  • Built the division from scratch: head-office operations, recruitment, accounting and procurement. About 45 people trained to franchise standard.
  • 100% audit compliance from day one. Gross margin held above 70%.
Flagship launchCrazy Pizza — opening record
Sash Café logo

03 / 11
Apr 2019 – Mar 2022
Noor Enterprises Holding · Riffa, Bahrain

Sash Café

General Restaurant Manager / Brand Operations

  • 35% year-on-year food-and-beverage growth, 13% expense reduction, guest satisfaction held at 92%.
  • Best Café 2021 — Riffa Culinary Excellence Award.
  • When the pandemic hit, about 80% of sales moved into delivery and takeout. Through that period: a 10% overall sales increase, a 10% beverage-programme lift, 22% Talabat delivery-sales growth, and a 45% service-metric improvement.
  • Menu development, extra revenue streams, and Ramadan gathering boxes — glassware through pricing and execution.
Ramadan boxBBQ Gathering BoxBeverage programmeRefreshing Beverages BoxFamily occasionFamily Gathering Box
Café Java's logo

04 / 11
Aug 2018 – Jan 2019
Mandela Group · Kenya & Uganda

Café Java's

Head of Operations / Acting Operations Director

  • Café Java's and The Food Hub. Hired as Head of Operations; acting Operations Director from the first week, when the Director left. Two store openings, Uganda and Kenya, plus a central kitchen, inside a six-month contract.
  • Coordinated imports from South Africa, the UAE and across Africa. The central kitchen in Kenya was the group's first.
  • SOP library, franchise compliance and recipe cards across both countries. About a 25% operating-cost reduction versus projections, and a 60% internal promotion rate on the training pipeline.
  • Group scale: 16 stores, 650+ people, about $33M annual revenue.
Lugogo and regional openingCafé Java's — new store
IHOP logo

05 / 11
Oct 2014 – Jul 2018
Alshaya Group · Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon

IHOP

Multi-Country Area Manager

  • Eleven restaurants and 450+ people. A portfolio above $20M in annual revenue. Food cost held at 32% and labour at 20% for three years. Gross margin above 70%.
  • Four new-store openings under my regional mandate: Bahrain, two in Kuwait, and Lebanon as a new market.
  • Beverage and smoothie programme: 8.5% beverage-revenue growth.
  • 97.5% staff retention over four years: only 2.5% of the team left. Twenty-six promotions into senior management. Franchise audits passed across the region for three years running.
Opening supervisionIHOP Avenues, BahrainNew marketIHOP Choueifat, LebanonKuwait openingIHOP Mahboula, Kuwait
Nando's logo

06 / 11
Jan 2014 – Sep 2014
Long Street, Cape Town

Nando's

Patrão / General Restaurant Manager

  • Forty-plus people on a high-volume flagship. Financial, food-safety and brand audits held through peak trade.
Role Advisors logo

07 / 11
Mar 2010 – Dec 2013
Western & Eastern Cape, South Africa

Role Advisors

Field Operations Manager

  • Role Advisors (Role Hospitality), operations specialists.
  • Multi-brand franchise floor: Nando's, Spur Steak Ranches, Cape Town Fish Market, Dros and Steers, plus retail roll-outs for Edgars Group and Joshua Doore. Central audit frameworks, compliance protocols, and less drift between sites.
  • The work that defined this chapter was revenue rescue: find the leak, fix the system, teach the team.
Cape Town Fish Market logo

08 / 11
May 2007 – Feb 2010
Cresta, Johannesburg · Southdowns, Irene, Pretoria

Cape Town Fish Market

General Manager

  • Franchisee of the Year, two years running.
  • Supply chain tightened to cut waste and protect profit.
KFC logo

09 / 11
May 2004 – Apr 2007
Yum! Brands · Germiston, Grayson Drive, Sandton, Fourways

KFC

Restaurant General Manager

  • QSR leadership inside Yum!. This is where CHAMPS became muscle memory: cleanliness, hospitality, accuracy, maintenance, product quality, speed of service.
  • That checklist still sits under how I open, audit and coach a building.
Stones logo

10 / 11
May 2000 – Apr 2004
Stones Entertainment · Bloemfontein

Stones

Senior Bar Manager

  • RayHas Investments. Senior Bar Manager, also acting as Assistant General Manager.
  • Bar P&L, events, product and procurement. Preventative maintenance, and the first SOPs written from the floor up.
Barney's logo

11 / 11
Feb 1996 – Apr 2000
Barney's Pub & Grill · Bloemfontein

Barney's

Manager

  • Where it started. Dishwasher, then every station, then head barman, then manager.
  • Full P&L, procurement, and menu development. The promise I still use on the floor comes from here: I will not ask a person to do a job I have not done myself.

GionCorp

Media vault

Open the film. Don’t take my word.

Opening days, menu launches and product work, filmed on the job. Each record opens in Google Drive.

GionCorpMenu photoshoots and food stylingFlagship launchCrazy Pizza — opening recordRamadan boxBBQ Gathering BoxBeverage programmeRefreshing Beverages BoxFamily occasionFamily Gathering BoxLugogo and regional openingCafé Java's — new storeOpening supervisionIHOP Avenues, BahrainNew marketIHOP Choueifat, LebanonKuwait openingIHOP Mahboula, KuwaitMenuSash Café — menu developmentRevenueSash Café — additional revenue streamsActivationZawaya Women's Expo
In their words

Colleagues have endorsed my skills on LinkedIn over 50 times, led by Training, Management, Operations Management and Customer Service, plus new openings, people development and leadership. See them on my profile.

linkedin.com/in/leonrheeder

Study

A diploma, then fifty-one certificates you can open.

High school diploma, President Steyn High School, South Africa, 1998. No degree is claimed. The library below lists every certificate, each linked to its verification.

How we can work

Three ways to put the years to work.

01

Senior operations leadership

Division, area or multi-unit. P&L, standards and people in the same pair of hands. Bahrain first. Serious packages further afield if the brief is real.

02

Consulting and turnaround

Opening readiness, late-launch recovery, food cost, labour, SOP and training libraries, menu profit, delivery channels, vendor leaks.

03

AI on a live operation

A workflow audit for a hospitality business that already has a floor standard. Automation where it saves hours. No science project.

Concept work, menu development and food styling run through GionCorp when that is the right vehicle.

Contact

Let’s put this experience to work.

Direct lines only. No public guestbook. WhatsApp opens the chat. Email opens your mail app.

Phone / WhatsApp +973 3342 3629pvt@leonrheeder.comDownload résumé

LinkedIn · Juffair, Bahrain