Built on flavor, driven by heart
Interview with Ilan Molcho, CEO of NENI Holding GmbH
From a humble market stall in Vienna to a pan-European food and lifestyle brand: What began in 2009 as a spontaneous family venture has grown into Gumpoldskirchen-based NENI Holding GmbH, a name now known across Europe for vibrant Eastern Mediterranean cuisine, both in restaurants and on supermarket shelves. CEO Ilan Molcho launched the business together with his mother Haya and two of his brothers. He shares how passion, authenticity, and a love of food transformed a small idea into an international success — without ever losing sight of its roots.
European Business: Mr. Molcho, NENI has grown from a single restaurant to a pan-European food and lifestyle brand. Did you ever anticipate this kind of growth?
Ilan Molcho: Not at all. NENI started in 2009 with no big plan. My mother, Haya, simply wanted to share her excellent home cooking and create something meaningful with her family. So, we said, “Let’s open a place together.” The first NENI, at Vienna’s Naschmarkt, was opened by my mother and three of her four sons, including me. We were complete outsiders in gastronomy — no experience, no business model. Just passion, great food, and the desire to welcome people. We didn’t start with branding or expansion in mind. The name “NENI” comes from our initials: Nuriel, Elior, Nadiv, Ilan. It was deeply personal from day one. We built it as a family project, and everything grew from the energy around it. There was a kind of warmth and openness that people connected with, and that’s what pushed us forward more than any strategy.
European Business: What sparked the first big step toward growth?
Ilan Molcho: One early guest changed everything: Christoph Hoffmann, founder of the 25hours Hotel group. He loved the food, but even more the atmosphere: the lively chaos, the human warmth, the balagan, as we say in Hebrew. He asked if we could open a NENI inside one of his hotels. That was the first expansion. We agreed because it felt right, not because it was part of a grand plan. We now have restaurants in Berlin, Paris, Zurich, Copenhagen, and Hamburg, many through franchise partnerships, especially with 25hours Hotels. But every move had to fit with our values. We never chased growth for its own sake. It had to feel like NENI.
European Business: What does the company structure look like today?
Ilan Molcho: We created NENI Holding, based in Gumpoldskirchen near Vienna. That’s also where we built our production facility, 3,500 m2 on a greenfield site. Above it are our offices: open, full of life, color, and creativity. Under the Holding, we have four main operating units, three for our Vienna restaurants and one, NENI am Tisch GmbH, for food production. Our franchise company oversees ten international restaurants. Across the company, we’re 200 employees in Austria and 500 employees abroad, totaling 700. And it’s still a family business. Our mother develops every recipe herself, Nuriel leads branding and communication, Elior manages the franchise operations, and I run the Vienna units and Holding. We don’t refer to our team as ‘employees’ — they’re co-creators. We try to give everyone real responsibility and space to shape things. We believe in structure, but not in bureaucracy. Systems should support creativity, not suffocate it.
European Business: What kind of leadership approach does that require?
Ilan Molcho: A lot of emotional intelligence and trust. I rely heavily on intuition and on surrounding myself with people who are better than me in their fields. My job is to support and empower them. You can’t run a people-first company just with spreadsheets. Sometimes you have to feel your way forward.
European Business: In addition to restaurants, NENI products are now available in retail. How did that start?
Ilan Molcho: Our hummus led the way. It’s the star of our product line and probably what we’re best known for. The recipe comes from our great-grandmother, and it takes three full days to prepare. We’ve industrialized the process without compromising the soul. No shortcuts. We use raw chickpeas, 100% Ethiopian sesame paste, and top-quality olive oil. No fillers, no palm oil. That attention to detail is what makes the difference. Alongside hummus, we produce other Mediterranean staples like babaganoush and shakshuka sauces, bringing authentic flavors to people’s homes.
European Business: Where are your products sold today?
Ilan Molcho: In Austria, exclusively through SPAR — in about 1,600 stores. In Germany, we’re in Edeka and Rewe. Also Migros in Switzerland. Germany is the most important market but also the most complex. It’s ten times the size of Austria, and every region has its own decision-makers. So we go step by step, sometimes door to door. The goal is to centralize our listings and bring more NENI products to shelves across Europe.
European Business: What’s next for NENI, where do you go from here?
Ilan Molcho: We’re taking it one step at a time. We want to bring the NENI spirit to more cities and expand our retail presence, especially in Germany and beyond. But growth only works if we maintain our core values — that’s our non-negotiable.