The president of the restaurant chain Frisby, Liliana Restrepo Arenas, was born into a middle-class home with 12 children. Her parents instilled in her and her siblings the importance of the two fundamentals of life: education and work.
For this reason, her eyes light up when she talks about the educational projects that Frisby has, the company she created with her husband, Alfredo Hoyos Mazuera (who passed in 2020) 46 years ago in Pereira.
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The history of Frisby began in a local, located in the 7th race. with calle 24, next to the central and emblematic El Lago park, in Pereira. However, it was not born as a restaurant, specializing in chicken, but as a pizzeria. In the search for new products to conquer palates, they began to offer breaded chicken; all a novelty because It was the first time in Colombia that chicken could be found in that preparation in a restaurant.
In a short time, the breaded chicken became the product most requested by customers and continues to be the chain’s sales icon today.
Due to its proximity to Pereira, the chain’s first points of sale were opened in 1978 in different cities of the Coffee Region. In 1987 the first stores arrived in Bogotá and three years later in Medellín. Today, Frisby has 270 restaurants -of which 200 are its own-, in 58 municipalities of the country and close to 5,000 employees.
At some point it had points of sale in New York and Venezuela, but decided on the national market. The restaurant where it all started, Frisby El Lago, is still in business.
A path of great challenges
This restaurant chain overcame the great challenges posed by the covid-19 pandemic – which began in the country in 2020 – and that same year was listed by the Euromonitor firm as the country’s quintessential fried chicken chain.
Liliana Restrepo and Alfredo Hoyos, founders of Frisby.
Frisby will open the expansion of its administrative headquarters this year and foresees investments of 45,000 million pesos in infrastructure and technology.
In addition, in the course of this year, the company will open 11 more restaurants, which will have the new image of the brand. It has six more restaurants under its sister brand Wingz, the chicken wing restaurants, and the franchise for Sarku Japan, the oriental food restaurant chain.
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Beyond these figures, the businesswoman stressed that the most important thing about Frisby is its collaborators, its employees.
Frisby opened the college 38 years ago.
A food company focused on education
However, this businesswoman, who was chosen by Forbes magazine as one of the 100 most powerful women of 2023, is excited when she talks about the Alfredo Hoyos Mazuera Technological Institute of Dosquebradas, a consolidated educational establishment in the so-called ‘industrial municipality ‘ de Risaralda, where the company’s plant and its administrative headquarters are also located.
“A country is transformed into the classroom,” says Restrepo.
The Institute was born from the idea of giving homeless children a chance at life. This is how they rescued ten children from the streets and offered them housing and education. Restrepo recalled that the beginning was very difficult, but he managed to consolidate the initiative.
Currently, this educational institution has 520 students and during its 38 years of operation it has graduated close to 700 young people, in 23 promotions, of which 35 have been able to pursue university degrees thanks to scholarships granted by the company for their academic performance. The school has three modalities: food, agro-industrial and digital skills.
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In addition to their high school diploma, students are certified as technicians by the National Learning Service (Sena), due to an agreement with that entity. With this alliance, it is sought that young people can access the labor market for their technical training.
When they are in grade 11, students must present an entrepreneurship project in order to graduate. Some of these projects participate in entrepreneurship fairs that are held in the department, especially Expocamello, which is the most important and is organized by the Pereira Chamber of Commerce.
At Frisby University, 45% of the employees study.
‘The country needs more entrepreneurs’
In the entrepreneurship project that the students of the Institute must present, the parents also receive training since it was discovered that these are key in the accompaniment that the young people need. The idea is that parents define themselves as ‘coaches’ for their children.
“It is taking children and young people off the streets, so that they become good human beings,” he says.
Many of the Institute’s graduates work in Frisby. Restrepo highlights the case of Sebastián Echeverry, who graduated with the project of a donut factory and later began working in the company. Alfredo Hoyos Mazuera himself was the mentor of the young man who is today Frisby’s director of innovation and development.
Frisby has an internal training program for its employees, Frisby University. In this, the Career Plan is developed, which has allowed 250 collaborators to have training in the different operations of the company. 85 per cent of vacancies are filled with staff trained at Frisby University.
It is taking children and young people off the streets, so that they become good human beings.
university at your school
The second program that most excites the Frisby manager is University at your school, which is based on a similar experience that has existed for several years in Manizales, at the initiative of the Lúker Foundation. 70 percent of public schools in the capital of Caldas have this initiative.
The program consists of students in grades 10 and 11 receiving a technical education so that they have a better chance of entering the job market once they graduate. The idea of implementing this program in Pereira arose from the social outbreak of 2021 and 426 students have already benefited.
So far, the program is in five schools and has the support of the Pereira Mayor’s Office, Chec (energy company) and other entities. Technical careers are offered by Ciaf and the Comfamiliar University.
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