{"id":870505,"date":"2026-08-30T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=870505"},"modified":"2026-08-28T16:33:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T14:33:57","slug":"the-two-companies-that-own-22-of-south-africas-most-popular-restaurant-and-fast-food-brands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/870505\/the-two-companies-that-own-22-of-south-africas-most-popular-restaurant-and-fast-food-brands\/","title":{"rendered":"The two companies that own 22 of South Africa’s most popular restaurant and fast food brands"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Famous Brands and the Spur Corporation control a significant number of South Africa’s restaurants, with 22 franchises between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spur started in 1967 in Cape Town as a single restaurant, then adopted a franchise model and eventually listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in 1986.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spur restaurant is the main franchise of the Spur Corporation, with approximately 320 outlets operating in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this is the company’s main focus, it also operates notable brands such as John Dory’s, with 44 of these stores in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Spur Corporation also has 93 Rocomamas franchises and 97 Panarottis restaurants, as well as several other brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total, the Spur Corporation operates nine distinct restaurant franchises, each with its own focus and target market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the business’s restaurants, such as Casa Bella and Doppio Zero, aim to provide a high-end dining experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While these restaurants perform well for the group, Spur and Panarottis are the two largest earners for the company, which focus on providing a family environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its interim results, Spur noted that consumers have been price-conscious in recent months, due to economic pressures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Consumers remain highly price-conscious due to persistent economic strain and the pressures of rising
costs of living while strained disposable income is impacting dining-out trends,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Consumers reported choosing brands primarily based on affordability, healthier meals and brand trust.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would explain why the business is seeing greater success in its family-oriented stores compared to its higher-end offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Franchises owned by Spur Corporation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Brand name<\/strong><\/td>Number of stores<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Spur<\/td>321<\/td><\/tr>
Panarottis<\/td>97<\/td><\/tr>
John Dorys<\/td>44<\/td><\/tr>
Rocomamas<\/td>93<\/td><\/tr>
Doppio Zero<\/td>34<\/td><\/tr>
Modern Tailors<\/td>2<\/td><\/tr>
Pizza e Vino<\/td>7<\/td><\/tr>
Hussar Grill<\/td>28<\/td><\/tr>
Casa Bella<\/td>7<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

Famous Brands has one of the largest restaurant footprints in the country, operating several well-known franchises and many smaller chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group is best known for owning Steers, Debonairs, and Fishaways, which are its largest earners and have the most stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These franchises form part of its “leading brands”, which also include Mugg n Bean, Wimpy, and Milky Lane.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also has its “signature brands”, which do not have a presence as large as its leading brands, but are still a large part of the business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total, Famous Brands operates 2,694 restaurants in South Africa and has a footprint across large parts of Africa and the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of its approximately 2,700 stores in South Africa, 2,576 are part of its leading brands, and this segment is also the best-performing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its 2026 financial results, the group reported spending patterns similar to those of Spur Corporation, noting that consumers were largely focused on value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Consumer behaviour remains highly value-driven, with increased price sensitivity and selective purchasing patterns,” Famous Brands said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Shoppers are actively seeking promotions and trading between brands based on value offerings. This includes limited-time offers, combos, bundles and attractive entry-level price points.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to Spur, Famous Brands has recently seen its strongest performance from brands that focus on affordability and broad appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s signature brands, which include franchises such as Mythos and Vovo Telo, are a far smaller segment of its business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company reported having 118 signature-brand restaurants at the end of the 2026 financial year, far fewer than those of its leading brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These restaurants also saw a slight decline in sales growth during the 2026 financial year, attributed to a shift in South Africans’ spending behaviour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Famous Brands also operates two hospital coffee chains as part of its signature brands, Netcaf\u00e9 and Coffee Couture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group has said that these two brands have had strong performance in the past due to high foot traffic in the areas where they operate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Famous Brands franchises<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Brand name<\/strong><\/td>Number of stores<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Steers<\/td>671<\/td><\/tr>
Debonairs<\/td>732<\/td><\/tr>
Fishaways<\/td>236<\/td><\/tr>
Mugg & Bean<\/td>285<\/td><\/tr>
Wimpy<\/td>457<\/td><\/tr>
Milky Lane<\/td>121<\/td><\/tr>
Mythos<\/td>Signature Brand<\/td><\/tr>
Paul<\/td>Signature Brand<\/td><\/tr>
Salsa Mexican Grill<\/td>Signature Brand<\/td><\/tr>
Turn n Tender<\/td>Signature Brand<\/td><\/tr>
Vovo Telo<\/td>Signature Brand<\/td><\/tr>
Lupa<\/td>Signature Brand<\/td><\/tr>
Netcafe<\/td>Signature Brand<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div>
Signature brands do not have individualised store numbers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photos of Spur Corporation restaurants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Photos of Famous Brands restaurants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Famous Brands and the Spur Corporation have a major footprint in South Africa, operating 22 franchises between them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":803064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"failed","_sma_x_autopost_error":"Instagram publishing failed: Instagram returned HTTP 400: Media ID is not available","_sma_x_post_id":"2093987355078058029","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2190837821736617","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[10215,10789,10435,14335,9812],"class_list":["post-870505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-debonairs","tag-famous-brands","tag-spur","tag-spur-corporation","tag-steers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870505","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\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870505"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872328,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870505\/revisions\/872328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/803064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}