Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, the latest in a flurry of well-known U.S. fast-food chains to test the South African market, will adopt a cautious\u00a0approach to expansion as the company takes time to lure customers from more established brands such as KFC and Chicken Licken.<\/p>\n
The seller of fried chicken will open the first of three South African outlets in the Johannesburg financial district of Sandton on July 13. Siyaghopa Trading Group, a closely held investment vehicle that was awarded the Popeyes license by Canadian parent Restaurant Brands International Inc., is buying up land to support a future roll out at a yet-to-be determined date, according to Chief Executive Officer Jaye Sinclair.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no urgency,\u201d Sinclair, 46, said in an interview at Bloomberg\u2019s Johannesburg office on Thursday. \u201cWe can start creating a land bank for when things start to turn around and we can accelerate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The opening comes after Africa\u2019s most industrialized economy slid into recession in the first quarter, while brands such as KFC have long dominated a fast-food market with an above-average share devoted to chicken.<\/p>\n
Competing with the Yum! Brands Inc. chain will be a \u201clong process,\u201d Sinclair said, though he\u2019s confident that word will spread quickly once South Africans taste the Popeyes range.<\/p>\n
The company is seeking to replicate the early popularity of Burger King, Dunkin\u2019 Donuts, Pizza Hut and Starbucks, all of which have opened their first South African stores since 2013.<\/p>\n
Sinclair also led the South African opening of Burger King. He resigned to join Siyaghopa after its owners — a group of businessmen who the CEO said prefer to remain anonymous — approached him in early 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a corporate environment there aren\u2019t the opportunities to take an equity stake that you can in private companies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Restaurant Brands agreed to buy Popeyes for about $1.8 billion in February, adding the Atlanta-based owner of more than 2,600 stores to Burger King and Tim Hortons, a coffee and donut chain.<\/p>\n
Popeyes, which started as a single outlet in New Orleans in 1972, expanded across the Middle East and Latin America before entering Africa. Its fried chicken is a favorite of pop superstar Beyonce, who served buckets of it to guests at her wedding to rapper Jay-Z in 2008.<\/p>\n