Smoke & Pepper named Franchise Business of the Year 2026
Well… this was a
pretty special night.
Smoke & Pepper has officially been named Franchise Business of the Year at the Islam Channel Business Awards 2026.
And yes, we’re still smiling about it.
There are awards that look lovely sitting on a shelf, and then there are awards that make you think about all the people, late nights, lessons, mistakes, openings, busy weekends and slightly mad moments that got you there.
This one definitely feels like the latter.
From burgers to
business owners
When Smoke & Pepper started, there wasn’t some grand masterplan pinned to a board showing restaurants across the country.
We started with food.
Really good food, big flavours and the belief that if we made something people genuinely loved eating, they would come back.
Thankfully, you did.
Again and again.
And somewhere along the way, Smoke & Pepper became bigger than the food.
People started asking if they could open their own Smoke & Pepper. Those first conversations eventually became franchise restaurants, and those franchisees became part of the family.
Today, we have business owners across the country running Smoke & Pepper restaurants, employing their own teams and building something they can genuinely call their own.
That part makes us incredibly proud.
Franchising is brilliant. It’s also hard work.
We love franchising, but we’re not going to pretend it’s always plain sailing.
Restaurants are busy. Things go wrong. People make mistakes. We make mistakes. There are brilliant weeks and there are weeks where everyone needs a strong coffee and a very long WhatsApp conversation.
That’s business.
What matters is what you do next.
As Smoke & Pepper has grown, we’ve kept learning. We’ve strengthened our training, operations and support. We listen to our franchisees. We challenge them when we need to, and they certainly challenge us too.
Because behind every franchise agreement is a real person who has trusted us with their investment and their future.
We never take that lightly.
So being recognised as Franchise Business of the Year means an awful lot.
But there’s someone else we need to thank…
You.
The people who actually eat the food.
Because we could have the best franchise manuals, systems, training programmes and expansion plans in the world, but if nobody fancied a Smoke & Pepper burger on a Friday night, we’d have a bit of a problem.
None of this is possible without the people who love our food.
The regulars who know their order before they reach the till. The families who make us part of their weekend. The people who discover us for the first time and then bring their mates back. The delivery customers ordering their favourites from the sofa.
Every order matters.
Every busy restaurant matters.
And every customer who chooses Smoke & Pepper gives our franchise partners the opportunity to build stronger businesses.
So this award belongs to you too.
One trophy. A lot
of people behind it.
01
To our franchise partners, thank you for believing in Smoke & Pepper and putting so much into your businesses.
02
To our restaurant teams, managers and Head Office team, thank you for caring about the details, dealing with the chaos and turning up again the next day ready to do it all over again.
03
To our suppliers, advisers and partners, thank you for growing with us.
04
And to the Islam Channel Business Awards, thank you for recognising what the people behind Smoke & Pepper are building.
We know there is still plenty of work ahead. There are more restaurants to open, more franchisees to support, more things to improve and, knowing us, probably a few new burgers to argue about along the way.
But for one evening, we got to stop and enjoy this one.
And we did.
From everyone at Smoke & Pepper, thank you for being part of our story.
Franchise Business
of the Year 2026. 🏆🔥
Not bad for a business that started with a love of really good food.
