Be Warned - Anonymous employee Kitopi Employee Review

1.0
19 Sept 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-If you are in a high enough position the pay is good

Cons

Be very careful with Kitopi, all is not what it seems. Kitopi loves to paint an image to the world that everything is great and everyone is so happy to work there, this couldn't be further from the truth. When entering in to the UK the company made a push to open 50 kitchens and hire a large amount of staff. Mo the CEO himself came to London to announce the expansion. Within a week of his arrival all of the offer letters that had been sent out were cancelled and growth in London was put on hold. People who had already accepted jobs with Kitopi were told they no longer had an offer. Eventually Kitopi shut down all operations in the UK and has no intention of returning. When Kitopi entered in to the United States they made an announcement that they would be opening 100 kitchens within a year and would be making New York its global headquarters. They ended up with less than five kitchens total in the US and then shut down all operations and fired everyone, just as with London. The company has now turned it's back on the west. Why? Because it isn't profitable. Why? Because the way that Kitopi can get away with treating its kitchen employees in the Middle East doesn't work in the west. Employees in the offices are treated great, and this is the image that Kitopi loves to show to the world. But they are a food company, and they treat their kitchen workers very poorly. So poorly that kitchen staff in Saudi Arabia went on strike during Kitopi's launch there. Nepotism is rampant at the company. All brands are meant to be external of the company, don't make any mention of the CEO's wife owning one of them though. If you are not Lebanese or do not have a close connection to the management you will not go far. They hire and fire people on a moment's notice, according to the whims of managers that the CEO exerts zero control over. He is too wrapped up in getting investment money and granting interviews to recognize what his staff are doing or to care.

Explore other reviews about Kitopi

5.0
12 Dec 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Friendly and helpful colleagues Good Ambience Perfect location

Cons

A place to have food :)

1.0
2 June 2020
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Given a great degree of responsibilities, trust, and power early on.

Cons

The cons here are overwhelming. Kitopi is an extremely poorly managed company from the CEO and co-founders down to the teams in the kitchen. No market or facet of the company is spared from the delusional antics of the top leadership. The only reason the company has managed to survive is 1) Strong investors backing (if it did not have pools of cash in the bank it would have collapsed by now) 2) Their ability to deeply undercompensate employees by offering a false promise of growth. Everything at Kitopi is a fight with management, even when presented with overwhelming data and support form various teams they act out of ego and emotion. From putting their employees in harm's way to disseminating false information the company even forced employees to leave fake positive reviews both about their products online but as well as on this and other job posting sites. Put simply this company has no real culture, it prides its love of 'Kitopians' while abusing those same employees. Only to threaten to fire them at every turn. They drop/replace senior management level employees on a monthly basis (that says it all right there).

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