SOUTH AFRICA – Spur Corporation, South Africa based owner of Spur, Panarottis, John Dory’s and RocoMamas fast food chains, has announced the appointment of Vuyo Henda as its new chief marketing officer.
Vuyo has more than ten years’ business experience, with her most recent role leading the foods business for Southern Africa at Unilever.
She joined Unilever in 2009 and has worked in various roles across customer development and marketing. She also spent some time abroad working on the biggest Unilever Food brand, Knorr.
Since her return from London, Vuyo has a built her expertise in Foods within FMCG, including developing a plant-based strategy.
Spur Corporation chief executive Val Nichas said, “It gives me great pleasure to welcome such a fine marketing leader to our team.
“Vuyo is a seasoned business leader with an impressive track record in marketing, both locally and globally in the fast-moving consumer goods industry.
“She is a highly-skilled, forward-thinking marketing specialist who has the ability to inspire teams and collaborate with them to build great brands.”
Vuyo studied at UCT where she obtained a Bachelor of Business Science (Finance) degree. In 2020 she became one of 20 Dalai Lama Fellows and is part of the founding exco team for the Durban branch of the DreamGirls Academy.
Commenting on her appointment Vuyo Henda said, “I’m thrilled to join Spur, especially given the exciting changes the business is undergoing in terms of their purpose of Leading for the Greater Good.
“I feel honoured to contribute my experience to this dynamic organisation, and hope to continue to drive the growth of its wonderful brands into the future.”
Her appointment strengthens the already strong female representation on the executive leadership team.
The food chain operator’s executive team has been successfully transformed in less than two years to 50% female and 50% black.
Just as a reminder, the company appointed Val Nichas to head the entity in 2021 alongside Cristina Teixeira as group Chief Financial Officer.
As the company strengthens its leadership position, the company seeks to open 32 new restaurants in South Africa and seven internationally for the current financial year to June 2022.
In the six months to December 2021, Spur registered 119.4% rise in headline earnings to R59 million (US$3.93m) as trading conditions improved with the easing of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions and the strong increase in restaurant foot traffic in the last few months of 2021.
Group revenue grew by 40.3% to R441 million (US$29.35m) due to improved franchised restaurant turnovers, higher sales in the five company-owned restaurants and increased sales from the manufacturing and distribution division.
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