KEY POINTS:
About once a month Ted van Arkel dials the the Pizza Hut 0800 number to order a Hawaiian pizza for himself and a seafood flavour for his wife.
He crosses the street from his apartment to pick up the pizza himself - just to see how the retail outlet is going.
He's not afraid to admit there's some work to be done.
Pizza Hut's parent company Restaurant Brands - which van Arkel chairs - is New Zealand's only listed fast-food company. It has a market capitalisation of about $83 million and holds New Zealand franchises for KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks coffee.
The past year has been tough for the group with the departure of chief executive Vicki Salmon and the failure to find a buyer putting a spotlight on an underwhelming operating performance. Pizza Hut in particular has suffered from increased competition, from Domino's and Hell Pizza.
The company, which van Arkel has been also closely involved in running since Salmon left suddenly in March, has seemed under siege for much of the past 12 months.
There was an ill-fated and costly investment in a Pizza Hutt chain in Victoria, Australia, dragging back profits and the company's energies - important in a small company - followed by disruptive and fruitless discussions with potential buyers.
Then there is another issue. The future of Restaurant Brands is inextricably linked with with Yum! Brands, the United States-based company that owns KFC and Pizza Hut and which oversees key decisions. Van Arkel admits the situation is not ideal.
"Yum! do have a rubber stamp on things like marketing. I remember one campaign when I first joined the board was the dog that runs through the dog door with a pizza. I remember being stunned and saying, 'We are not delivering dog food, what the hell is going on?'
"But they convinced me it was a good idea.
"We hold the master franchise for KFC with 87 stores in New Zealand but there are about eight individual franchises in New Zealand which have a direct relationship with Yum! It is one of the foibles. I think that the business model is flawed, but that is what we have to work with at the moment."
It is not clear what role Yum! had in the painfully slow deliberations by potential private equity buyers - including those van Arkel has described as "tyre kickers" with no real intention to make an offer.
Danny Diab, a significant Pizza Hut operator and Restaurant Brands investor and director, has praised van Arkel's leadership style. But at the start of this year the board was seen by some market analysts - rightly or wrongly - as dragging the chain and resisting calls from Salmon to sell.
"There never was an offer so there was nothing to reject," said van Arkel, who was clearly irritated by the sales talk and speculation about the departure.
While Restaurant Brands has been van Arkel's troubled child, his other company, Charlie's Group, has been run by the two blue-eyed boys.
He clearly likes its two founders: Stefan Lepionka, who he calls a "whiz kid", and Marc Ellis, who he has admired since he came calling at Progressive in the 1990s to get the juice on the supermarket shelves.
"My admiration grew when Marc signed a sponsorship deal for the Holmes Show," he said. The sponsorship was available at low cost because Holmes' "cheeky darkie" gaffe had frightened off mainstream sponsors.
"They took the brand right up there and showed courage. I was impressed.
"There was talk of the upcoming share float. When I retired from Progressive I sent a quick note to Marc saying I was looking forward to being shareholder. They listed and things moved on.
"There is something special about the company."
He recalls its astonishing annual meeting in November at the Parnell Rose Gardens.
Company annual meetings are typically dour affairs with a scattering of shareholders who ask no questions and wait expectantly for the tea and scones. But the Charlie's Group AGM was overflowing with people who asked numerous questions.
"We were staggered by the turnout. Maybe some came to see the stars, Marc Ellis and Diane Foreman [who was on the board].
"But I'd like to think there was genuine interest in where the company is going to."
Born in the Dutch university city of Utrecht, 10-year-old Ted and his family moved to New Zealand in 1953, living initially in Ohakune.
After nine miserable months in the isolated location the family moved to Auckland where Ted attended Mt Albert Grammar and took his first retail job selling Christmas cards at Woolworths during school holidays.
He left school at 16 to take up a cadetship with Woolworths.
Forty-five years later and aged 61 - with Progressive successfully turned around - he left for his new career as a company director.
He was a key player behind the stabilisation of Progressive Enterprises - after years of neglect - including the upgrade of its run-down supermarket chains.
Once the poor cousin of the grocery sector, Progressive now challenges Foodstuffs for dominance, thanks in part to improvements and a cash infusion during his era with owners Foodlands, from 1998 to 2004. Operating earnings at Progressive, which owns Foodtown, Countdown and Woolworths, increased from representing 0.96 per cent of total sales to 5.6 per cent, due in part to the merger with the Woolworths chain.
That may still sound low but the supermarket business is all about high turnover and low margins.
In 1998 sales were $1.5 billion with 8700 employees. When he left they were around $4 billion and the group employed about 18,000 people, Van Arkel said.
He retired in 2004, to be a professional director and chairman for Restaurant Brands and Charlie's Group.
With Restaurant Brands and Charlie's Group he still has a foot on the shop floor and says he loves the retail business. "I knew when I was 16 it was in my blood. It is the excitement and opportunity you get from quick response out of retail," he said. "You just have to ensure that the basics are in place."
His career strayed into wholesaling and the travel business.
But he has mostly been linked with retail, also working with Placemakers in the 1990s. That included being a joint-venture owner with Fletcher Building in 1992 of a Placemakers store in Pakuranga.
The relationship with Placemakers' owner turned sour, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth.
He said he boosted a turnover of $4.5 million to $17 million and he ended up buying the property.
After allowing him to proceed with an investment, Fletcher withdrew his contract, claiming a conflict.
"I decided to walk rather than take legal action. It was rough."
But that led to the next phase in his career.
"I remember when they did not renew my agreement I was very unhappy and threw the rejection letter on my desk and drove down to the Pakuranga Mall for a coffee.
"I went to the cafe, saw these three guys - two of whom I knew.
"I knew Wayne Walden, who ran Farmers, and the other was Barry Alty, who I had worked with at Woolworths.
"They asked, 'Ted - what are you doing now?' I said, 'I may well be looking for a job'."
Alty was part of a team with Foodlands that was buying Progressive Enterprises - then with just 25 per cent market share - and soon after van Arkel was hired as deputy chief executive, rising a year later to the top job.
"We focused on the core business and won approval to upgrade stores, which at that stage, before the merger with Woolworths, was limited to Countdown and Foodtown.
"[They were] pretty darn dingy, badly lit with little interest in placement and stores were not even being well audited.
"We made progress and once we joined with Woolworths the company had the size to increase our scale of the business and get better terms with suppliers."
Van Arkel says the impact was swift.
"We called it knocking off the low-hanging fruit, fixing immediate problems.
"We started to get traction in 2000."
He will be hoping for a similar turnaround at Pizza Hut.
Ted van Arkel
* Chairman Restaurant Brands, Charlie's Group.
* Former chief executive Progressive Enterprises.
* Born: Utrecht, the Netherlands, 1943.
* Educated: Mt Albert Grammar School.
* Married, with two adult children.
