A LOCAL couple behind a small empire of KFC restaurants across three counties are celebrating a global award for their achievements.

Gerard and Martina Nicholas, who live in Longhope, run the group NNA Limited and in the last 43 years have built up a portfolio of 11 KFC restaurants employing more than 330 people at various locations which includes Ross-on-Wye, Gloucester, Cheltenham, Tewkesbury, Cirencester and Evesham.

To mark their achievements at KFC’s Global Franchisee Convention 2025 in Sydney, Australia, Gerard and Martina were handed the KFC Heart Led Leader award at a prestigious ceremony after beating competition from other franchises across 150 nations.

Gerard said: “I’m really grateful for this new award as a recognition of our work and for our ethics as an employer.”

He believes that good management of the people he worked with came down to empathy and always being receptive and added: “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.

“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,” said Gerard.

This year marks Gerard’s 50th year with KFC, having started out as a cook at the Tower Bridge restaurant in London 1975. Martina will have been in business with KFC for 46 years this year, having started as a team member at Camberwell’s KFC.