{"id":840428,"date":"2025-10-21T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=840428"},"modified":"2025-10-21T08:22:57","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T06:22:57","slug":"iconic-south-african-fast-food-restaurant-is-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/840428\/iconic-south-african-fast-food-restaurant-is-back\/","title":{"rendered":"Iconic South African fast-food restaurant is back"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Iconic South Africa fast-food chain Scooter’s Pizza is making a comeback, with the group re-launching on Tuesday, 21 October, after almost 10 years since it was liquidated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scooters Pizza was a household name for pizza lovers in South Africa that disappeared after its previous brand owner, Taste Holdings, imported the Domino’s pizza brand into the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Launched in 2000, Scooters gained momentum through its bold brand promise to deliver pizzas in 39 minutes, or the order was free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company was the brainchild of Carlo Gonzaga, former Taste Holdings CEO, who first got a taste of the industry when his father bought one of the early Debonairs Pizza franchises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After acquiring a law degree, Gonzaga joined his father in the pizza business during university holidays and later bought into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brand resonated with South Africans who favoured quick and consistent delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2006, it had 100 stores and was the fastest-growing pizza chain in the country. However, when Taste scored the Domino’s licence, the brand quickly started to fade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2016, it had all but disappeared as the brand was liquidated and stores were converted to Domino\u2019s Pizza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taste eventually exited the food and restaurant sector entirely. The group couldn’t make a deal for the Domino\u2019s brand, and so the stores shut, with assets later auctioned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, the company decided to liquidate its remaining food businesses and rebranded as Luxe Holdings. Luxe was eventually placed in liquidation in September 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Scooter’s telling of its comeback, one of the brand’s early expansion partners, Juan Engelbrecht, acquired and is now relaunching the brand through 1st Choice Business Brokers & Franchising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engelbrecht is a seasoned entrepreneur, corporate executive and business acquisition specialist with over 40 years of transformative experience in corporate leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the founding years of Scooters Pizza in Gauteng (2002\/3), he founded the first four outlets of the franchise in the Western Cape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By his own telling, he has opened at least 22 franchise brands outside of Scooters, including Jimmy’s Killer Prawns and Wiesenhof Coffees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now in October 2025, the first re-branded Scooters Pizza will launch in Melville, Johannesburg, on 4 Main Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engelbrecht decided to rebrand and relaunch Scooters Pizza after noticing continued consumer demand for the brand, the group said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers can expect the return of the 39-minute promise as well as new promotions and challenges to set itself apart in a highly competitive environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of launch specials, the group is also running a 39-minute all-you-can-eat challenge. However, with only one store to start, it will be quite a journey to take the brand back to its glory days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with the previous operations, the group is following a franchising model, with opportunities for franchisees being promoted from the outset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scooter’s Pizza Relaunch<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Iconic South African fast-food chain Scooter’s Pizza is relaunching after almost 10 years since it was liquidated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":840429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[21238],"class_list":["post-840428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-scooters-pizza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840428","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=840428"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840450,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/840428\/revisions\/840450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=840428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=840428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=840428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}