Who Owns Nando's?

Nando’s is privately owned and South African in origin. The business is widely reported as belonging to the Enthoven family through their Yellowwoods group — and Companies House does not say that. What the register does name, at the top of the UK chain, is one individual: Leslie Perlman, a South African national, recorded as holding 75% or more of the voting rights in Nando’s Group Holdings Limited. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns the Nandos brand?

The restaurants are run by NANDO’S CHICKENLAND LIMITED (02580031), incorporated 5 February 1991 — the year after the first UK Nando’s opened.

Nando’s began in Johannesburg in 1987, founded by Robert Brozin and Fernando Duarte, whose name the chain carries. It has never been listed and has never been sold to a larger group.

Parent company and ultimate owner

The UK chain runs:

1. Nando’s Chickenland Limited (02580031) — the restaurants
2. Nando’s Finance Limited (05415274) — 75%+
3. Nando’s Group Limited (06530077) — 75%+
4. Nando’s Group Holdings Limited (06451677)
5. Mr Leslie Perlman — South African, resident in Luxembourg, recorded with ownership of voting rights, 75% or more and the right to appoint or remove directors, notified 6 April 2016

Read that last entry carefully. It records voting rights only — not ownership of shares. On this site that pattern usually indicates someone holding or directing votes on behalf of others, through a trust or similar arrangement, rather than owning the economic interest personally.

So the register gives a name and control, and stops short of telling you who benefits. The reported answer — the Enthoven family, through their Yellowwoods investment group — is not on any UK filing.

Brand owner vs operating company

Nando’s Chickenland Limited holds the UK restaurant business. The brand and the international operations sit across a wider group, with separate companies for the Middle East, the subcontinent, grocery products and financing.

One register trace does connect the family group to the business: YELLOWWOODS ASSOCIATES UK LIMITED (02684543) was previously named Nando’s Chickenland (Earls Court) Limited. A company that once ran a single restaurant now carries the name of the family’s investment vehicle — the sort of link that only shows up if you read the previous names.

When the ownership changed

Nando’s has never been acquired. The Enthoven family, through Yellowwoods, backed the business early and has been associated with it since — the founders sold down over time rather than the company changing hands in a single event. Dick Enthoven, the family’s patriarch, died in 2022; the business remains private.

The register carries a filing-history detail from the introduction of the PSC regime. Nando’s Group Holdings filed a statement on 12 December 2016 that it had not yet completed taking reasonable steps to identify a registrable person, and withdrew it on 22 December 2017. That is a company saying, on the record, that it did not yet know who controlled it — a statement type rarely seen and worth knowing exists.

A quite different curiosity: NANDO’S CHICKEN LIMITED (00166821) was incorporated on 26 April 1920 as the London & Kingston Insurance Company Limited, and took the Nando’s name in September 1994. A dormant interwar insurance company reused as a group entity seventy years later — proof that an old company number says nothing about how long a brand has existed.

Related brands in the same group

Nando’s operates its restaurants and sells its PERi-PERi sauces through a grocery business. The Yellowwoods group has interests well beyond it, in insurance and other sectors, which share an owner rather than a business.

Nando’s is not part of any restaurant group and has no connection to the large casual-dining owners. It is one of the few chains of its size in Britain still under private, family-linked ownership.

Sources and verification

Every company number, the chain of PSC entries, the Perlman entry with its nature of control, the withdrawn 2016 statement and both previous-name findings are from the Companies House register and can be checked directly.

The Enthoven family’s ownership is not register-verified. It comes from press reporting and the group’s own public statements, and the UK register names an individual with voting control instead. Where the beneficial ownership actually sits — and through what structure — is not established by any filing available here. Companies House does not verify most filed information.