SOUTH AFRICA – South Africa based fast–food chain operator has reported a marginal growth in its full year restaurant sales by 1%, representing a 67.6% increase in the second half of the financial year ended June 2021.

The jump in the interim period was in comparison to the same period in F2020, which was severely impacted by the total prohibition on sit-down trade in the fourth quarter.

Its home operations registered a sales growth of 1.5%, while its international businesses attaining a 3% decline in sales.

In a bid to build up sales, the owner of Spur and RocoMamas eateries rapidly became a serious fast food market competitor with the launch of Spur Steak Ranches’ first drive-through in Pretoria, with plans to introduce drive-through formats for its RocoMamas and Bento brands.

“Despite the continuation of these difficult trading conditions, the group’s casual dining restaurants were more poised to handle deliveries and takeaways, loyal customers were more responsive to convenience channels such as click and collect, and, overall, the second half of the 2021 trading year produced improved results that indicate a slow, but positive recovery,” said Spur.

Meanwhile, the company’s competitor Famous Brands, food services franchisor, has flagged a 76 percent jump in South African sales for the half-year ended in August, marking an uptick compared to a year ago when the Covid-19 pandemic severely disrupted the business.

Famous Brands, whose labels include fast-food outlets Wimpy and Debonairs Pizza, said on a like-for-like basis South African sales increased by about 72 percent, reports IOL.

In South Africa, Famous Brands’ system-wide sales increased by about 76% year-on-year, while like-for-like sales increased by about 72%, in the leading brands segment.

“Overall, the group’s results for the six months ended August 31, 2021, are expected to show a marked recovery on the comparative period, which was severely impacted by the pandemic,” said Famous Brands.

It said its South African signature brands’ system-wide sales increased by 36 percent, while like-for-like sales increased by approximately 149 percent.

The group’s signature brands offer a personalised dining experience and include Lupa Osteria, Mythos and Paul.

The company’s portfolio consists of 19 restaurant brands, represented by 2 773 restaurants across South Africa, the rest of Africa and the Middle East (AME), and the UK.

Its system-wide sales in the AME region increased by approximately 15 percent.

Further to that, group sales from its retail division, which focuses on supplying third-party retailers and wholesalers with branded licensed products, increased to R105 million (US$7.11m) from R72m (US$4.8m) in 2020.

The JSE listed company has reported that its supply chain business, which encompasses manufacturing and logistics, reported increased revenue of about 65% for manufacturing, and 74% for logistics, compared with the six months ended August 31, 2020.

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