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 LeonWalk 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. Thirty-plus years in restaurants, from a dishwasher in Bloemfontein to multi-country operations across South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Lebanon.

Coffee, multi-unit P&L, openings and brand-building are not a slide I present. I have run them. For the last stretch that also means AI — predictive workflows and practical automation laid onto operations that already work. Same instinct. Sharper tools. The work sits with GionCorp Enterprises.

Leadership, for me, is removing obstacles, tooling people properly, and mentoring them past their own expectations. Direct. Loyal. Slightly impatient with theatre that does not hit the P&L.

WhereJuffair, Manama, Bahrain. Self-sponsored resident. No relocation friction for local work.
Floor time30+ years. Eleven brands. Seven countries.
Born on the job25 February 1980. President Steyn High School, 1998. The trade was learned in the building.

The receipts

Numbers I am willing to put on the page.

Career averages are labelled as career averages. A single brand’s margin is not blended into them. Net profit and operating margin are different animals — both are named.

30+Years in the building, dishpit upward.
11.2%Average career net profit, as he publishes it.
6.21%Average career staff turnover. IHOP, separately, was 2.5% a year.
8 / 4New stores across four countries. Named below: four IHOP, two Café Java’s, Crazy Pizza. The eighth is not itemised in the file.
31.79%Average career food cost. IHOP was held at a 32% ceiling.
1.3%Wastage benchmark he cites across the career.

Guest satisfaction: a 90%+ career benchmark, and 92% recorded at Sash Café. Franchisee of the Year, twice, at Cape Town Fish Market. A conflicting “85% retention” line is left off this page because it does not agree with the 6.21% turnover figure.

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 he keeps. The line under his own work 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. No efficiency or downtime percentage is published here — those figures have not been cleared for the page.
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 200%+ above 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. Operating margin held above 70% on the record he stands behind.
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, as stated on the executive résumé and the previous site.
  • When the pandemic hit, about 80% of sales moved into delivery and takeout. He also records a 10% overall sales increase in that period, 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

Multi-Brand Operations Manager

  • Café Java's and The Food Hub. Two openings, Uganda and Kenya, inside a six-month contract.
  • Coordinated imports from South Africa, the UAE and across Africa. Opened the group's first central kitchen in Kenya.
  • 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 context he cites, not a personal sales line: 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. A portfolio above $20M in annual revenue. Food cost held at 32% and labour at 20% for three years. Operating margin above 70% where that record is substantiated.
  • Four new-store openings under his regional mandate, including Lebanon as a new market. An earlier public page said five — the figure published now is four.
  • Beverage and smoothie programme: 8.5% beverage-revenue growth. Not the retired 0.5% figure.
  • Staff turnover brought to 2.5% a year. 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.
  • Part of the African-art programme inside the restaurant — brand equity protected while the floor stayed full.
Role Advisors logo

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

Role Advisors

Field Operations Manager

  • Role Advisors, operations specialists. Also carried as Role Hospitality on the executive résumé.
  • Multi-brand floor: Steers, Spur Steak Ranches and Dros. Central audit frameworks, compliance protocols, and less drift between sites.
  • The work he names from this chapter is revenue rescue: find the leak, fix the system, teach the team.
Cape Town Fish Market logo

08 / 11
May 2007 – Feb 2010
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. This is the named award. A wider 'two brands, three years' line is not repeated here because the second brand is not in the source file.
KFC logo

09 / 11
May 2004 – Apr 2007
Yum! Brands · Johannesburg

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 he opens, audits and coaches a building.
Stones logo

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

Stones

Senior Bar Manager

  • RayHas Investments. The prior public timeline also records this seat as Assistant General Manager. Both titles are in the file; Senior Bar Manager is the one used here.
  • 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 still used on the floor comes from here: he will not ask a person to do a job he has not done himself.

GionCorp

Media vault

Open the film. Don’t take my word.

These are the Google Drive records supplied with the brief. They open in Drive. If a file asks you to request access, that is a permission on the source file, not a missing page.

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 — counts, not invented quotes.

The previous site reported LinkedIn endorsements from 16 colleagues, 51 times: Training 7, Management 6, Operations Management 3, Customer Service 3, plus new openings, people development and leadership. No testimonial quote is printed here because none was supplied. Check the live profile.

linkedin.com/in/leonrheeder
Video résumé — shot list and the words, if you film it

Ninety seconds. One locked camera. No music under the first line. Natural side light. White linen shirt, sleeves as in the portrait, no brand logos. Phone on silent.

Shot 1 · 0:00–0:12 · Walk in

Empty dining room, or a quiet corner in Juffair. Camera at chest height, 35mm feel, locked. You enter from frame left, stop with feet under your shoulders, hands loose, weight even. Look at the lens. Pause a full second. Then: “I’m Leon Rheeder. Thirty years ago I was washing dishes. I still will not ask a person to do a job I have not done myself.”

Shot 2 · 0:12–0:32 · The point

Same frame. Half a step closer. Slower than feels natural — about a quarter off your usual pace. “I build the operation so the team can win the service. Train them. Tool them. Look after them. That is how the margin and the guest both survive.” Pause. “The people make the brand.”

Shot 3 · 0:32–0:58 · Three receipts, no rush

Cut to a tighter frame, still locked. Hands visible, still. “Crazy Pizza: we opened in three and a half months after a six-month delay, and beat the opening projection by more than double. IHOP: eleven restaurants, four countries, food cost held at 32 percent. Sash Café: 35 percent sales growth, and we kept the lights on by moving the business into delivery when the room had to close.” Do not add a number you cannot point to.

Shot 4 · 0:58–1:20 · The ask

Wider again. You turn a quarter away, then back to the lens, as if you just checked the room. “If your opening is late, your food cost is wandering, or the team is tired of systems that do not help them — call me. I am in Juffair. I can start.” Hold the look for two seconds. Cut on the silence, not on a smile you forced.

What not to do

No walking and talking at the same time. No joke in the first line. No background playlist. No claim that is not already on this page. Export 1080p, 16:9, captions burned in. File name: Leon-Rheeder-video-resume.mp4.

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 is the certificate log, each row linked to LinkedIn 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. Articles were named on the previous site, but no article URLs were in the files, so none are invented here.

Contact

Let’s put this experience to work.

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

WhatsApp +973 6667 5683pvt@leonrheeder.comDownload résumé

LinkedIn · Juffair, Bahrain