Baba Rafi slows outlet growth to focus on store results

The goal is to prevent weak stores from dragging down the wider network.

PT Baba Rafi Indonesia is slowing outlet openings as it expands across Asia, choosing to focus on how each store performs rather than how many it opens.

Hendy Setiono, founder of the world’s biggest chain of kebab shops, said the first 90 days of a new outlet are crucial. “We treat this period as a critical phase in which operational discipline, product quality, and sales rhythm must be established from the start,” he told QSR Media Asia.

If a store misses internal targets, Baba Rafi conducts a review and may move the outlet to a different location. The goal is to prevent weak stores from dragging down the wider network.

The company runs a partnership model that lets lessons from one outlet be applied across others.

Menu items, pricing changes, and site choices are first tested in selected branches before being rolled out more widely through updated procedures and training.

“We do not view partnerships as a one-time outlet transaction but as a capability-building system,” Setiono said in an emailed reply to questions.

Baba Rafi operates more than 1,300 outlets in Indonesia and 68 in 10 other countries.

It plans to expand further in Eastern Indonesia and enter tier-two and tier-three cities using smaller, lower-cost formats.

Setiono said the company would measure growth by how quickly an outlet reaches stable sales levels, how existing stores grow, and whether partners stay in the system.

Ahead of his appearance at the QSR Media Asia Conference & Awards 2026 in Singapore, Setiono said success in the quick-service restaurant (QSR) sector depends less on rapid expansion and more on managing stores well.

For Baba Rafi, that means using outlet data to guide decisions and keeping standards consistent as it enters more markets.