The Gloucestershire couple behind the approved project to build a new KFC to Stroud’s Merrywalks are celebrating a global award for their work.
Gerard and Martina Nicholas run the franchise group NNA Limited and have together built up a portfolio of KFC franchise restaurants across three counties – with the collective achievements to date now being recognised in a top accolade at KFC’s Global Franchisee Convention 2025.
The award for the firm, headquartered on Gloucester’s Goodridge Avenue, is for the couple’s extraordinary work as directors for the popular quick-service giant.
At a glittering ceremony in Sydney, Australia, Gerard and Martina were handed the KFC Heart Led Leader award – beating competition from among franchises across 150 nations worldwide.
A spokesperson for NNA said: “With franchisees gathering from all over the world to celebrate KFC’s top achievers, Mr and Mrs Nicholas were given the prize for their trailblazing commitment to staff wellbeing and welfare.”
This award joins an increasingly congested trophy cabinet for the Gloucester firm: last year, NNA Ltd took top prizes from KFC in the UK, when the firm was judged to be Partner of the Year and honoured for Operational Excellence. The company’s area coach, Adrian Curtis, was also awarded Area Coach of the Year for both 2023 and 2024.
Gerard Nicholas told Punchlne : “I’m really grateful for this new award as a recognition of our work and for our ethics as an employer.”
Speaking about why they had been selected, he said that good management of the people he worked with came down to empathy and always being receptive.
“I think it’s an intuitive thing. Often you can sense what people need and that means you can ideally approach them to help them before the problem is such that they need to come to you. I think it is a feel for valuing the people you work with which came originally from my dad – not from a business manual.”
He added he would have never been able to achieve success without Martina’s continued support throughout their journey.
Sound management, to ensure staff were happy and enthusiastic for their work and KFC, was not complicated, he said: “If people you work with do a good thing, you must appreciate them, while if they are in difficulty, I believe you must reach out to help them. And if they want to speak to you, you must be there for them, day and night. They can call me at midnight – I will always answer the phone.”
This year marks Gerard’s 50th in KFC, having started out at Tower Bridge KFC in London 1975, and his first ever job, where he worked as a cook. Martina will meanwhile have been in business with KFC for 46 years this year, having started as a team member at Camberwell’s KFC.
Gerard and Martina’s early KFC experiences in London, which was where they first met, gave them both an appetite for more: in 1983, the couple came to Cheltenham, where they opened NNA Ltd’s first KFC restaurant on the High Street. After that success, 1990 saw the idea replicated on Westgate Street in Gloucester.
NNA Ltd has subsequently gone from strength to strength throughout the five decades it has been in operation. The company now has 11 sites, with restaurants in Gloucester, Cheltenham, Tewkesbury, Ross-on-Wye, Cirencester, Hereford and Evesham, with the NNA team made up of more than 330 people.
Tanuj Sharma, NNA Ltd’s operations lead, said: “You could not find anyone who lives and breathes KFC so much as Gerard and Martina. He loves the brand, and he knows it down to every nut and bolt, which is a good description, as he is also a qualified mechanical engineer.
“When he finished his studies, Mr Nicholas was urged by fellow students to join them in big engineering firms, but he preferred to stay at KFC. Above all, he has experience, which comes out of working tirelessly, seven days a week – something money can’t buy.”
Mr Nicholas added: “By building carefully, the rest have all followed from those early days, always investing in the business and the people. It has been hard work, but we have been blessed to have such a great team around us, many of whom have been with us for a very long time, upwards of 20 years, and have also moved up into senior positions.
“We couldn’t thank all our staff enough for their hard work and dedication – these awards are ultimately testimony to teamwork and the values we endeavour to instil.”
