{"id":826518,"date":"2025-06-09T10:41:28","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T08:41:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=826518"},"modified":"2025-06-09T15:41:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T13:41:52","slug":"south-africas-most-popular-coffee-shop-opening-new-restaurants-across-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/826518\/south-africas-most-popular-coffee-shop-opening-new-restaurants-across-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa’s most popular coffee shop opening new restaurants across South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mugg & Bean has experienced a significant expansion in its store network, as its parent company, Famous Brands, has recorded a substantial increase in profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mugg & Bean’s history dates back to the 1990s, when Ben and Judi Filmalter took a trip to Chicago and discovered a little coffee shop that prided itself on the spirit of generosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inspired by the idea, Ben returned to South Africa and opened the first Mugg & Bean in 1996 at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company emphasised generosity with ample portions, including its famously gigantic muffins, bottomless coffees, and cold drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The business took off quickly, and Filmalter started franchising, with the company seeing a massive expansion in a few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also expanded the restaurant’s concept to convenient \u201cMugg & Bean On the Move\u201d locations, with the first opening at the OR Tambo International Airport in Gauteng.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2009, Famous Brands bought Mugg and Bean in an acquisition worth R104 million, with a franchise network of 79 restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Famous Brands, which is listed on the JSE, owns Wimpy, Steers, Fishaways, Milky Lane, and several other popular chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mugg and Bean has continued to grow, opening locations in Kenya, Botswana, and the United Arab Emirates. Since Filmalter’s passing, the company has focused on his message as Mr Generosity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There were 36 Mugg & Bean locations added over the financial year ending 28 February 2025, bringing its total store network to 322 stores across 11 markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mugg and Bean’s total store numbers benefited from converting five Fego Cafes over the year. Outside of that, group CEO Darren Hale said that the total store increase is a positive sign for the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This makes Mugg & Bean the fourth-largest restaurant network in the company, behind 868 Debonairs Pizzas, 735 Steers, and 539 Wimpy restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at the group’s results presentation, Hale said that the company will continue its efforts to expand its leading brand presence, which includes Mugg and Bean, via its franchisee network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group opened 153 new restaurants over the period. However, this was not constant across all its brands, with Wimpy and Fishaways seeing a decrease, highlighting Mugg and Bean’s strong performance.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Source: Famous Brands<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Famous Brands financials <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The opening of new stores comes amid a relatively strong performance for the group, with headline earnings jumping by 12%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its financial results for the year ended 28 February 2025, the group said that headwinds in South Africa have significantly reduced consumer spending. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, consumers are prioritising essential spending and seeking value for money. The results also stressed that competition remains fierce, with increased advertising activity and promotions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also had to contend with deteriorating infrastructure, such as unreliable electricity, water supply, and logistics sector issues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there were positive signs over the year, such as reduced load shedding, improved consumer sentiment, rand stability, and lower inflation and interest rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group stated that the landscape favours franchised brands over independent brands, with the scale and well-known brands of franchised brands providing a competitive advantage as consumers seek affordable meals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the group’s revenue increased by only 3.2% to R8.3 billion, its operating profit increased by 12.6% to R914 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headline earnings also jumped by 12% to R521 million for the year due to slower sales growth compared to revenue and a R10 million reduction in the impairment of intangible assets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the group’s Leading Brands, including Mugg and Bean, performed well, the group’s total performance did not meet expectations due to lower consumer spending. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This subdued demand also hurt the company\u2019s manufacturing and logistics results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That said, the group’s total profit for the year increased by R100 million to R584 million, with headline earnings per share jumping by 11.9% to R584 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, with smaller net finance costs, R120 million in FY24 to R105 million in FY25, the group\u2019s total profit for the year also increased by R100 million to R584 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group increased its total dividend for the year by 14.2% to 195 cents per share, a healthy payout to its shareholders.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Mugg and Bean has seen a massive expansion of its total number of stores to over 300 despite the challenging economic environment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":827288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872,13700],"tags":[10789,21243,19882,20164,9812,5812],"class_list":["post-826518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-enterprise","tag-famous-brands","tag-fishaways","tag-milky-lane","tag-mugg-and-bean","tag-steers","tag-wimpy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=826518"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":827287,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/826518\/revisions\/827287"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/827288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=826518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=826518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=826518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}