{"id":883344,"date":"2026-11-09T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=883344"},"modified":"2026-11-09T16:42:27","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T14:42:27","slug":"the-rival-who-became-spur-ceo-and-went-from-earning-r50000-to-over-r500000-a-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/883344\/the-rival-who-became-spur-ceo-and-went-from-earning-r50000-to-over-r500000-a-week\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘rival’ who became Spur CEO and went from earning R50,000 to over R500,000 a week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Val Nichas has seen her annual remuneration at Spur Corporation increase from R2.6 million, when she joined the restaurant group in 2021, to more than R26 million in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nichas took over as chief executive officer of Spur Corporation on 1 January 2021, having previously held a senior executive position at Famous Brands, one of Spur’s biggest competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Famous Brands, she oversaw major quick-service restaurant businesses, including Steers, Debonairs Pizza, and Wimpy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her appointment at Spur brought an experienced fast-food industry executive to the group as it navigated the difficult trading conditions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her remuneration has increased significantly over her five years at the company, with the group’s integrated annual reports showing that performance bonuses and long-term share incentives make up a large portion of it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 2021 financial year, Nichas received R2.6 million in guaranteed remuneration for the six months she worked at Spur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No short-term or long-term incentives were awarded during this period, as the company had suspended incentive schemes as part of its Covid-19 austerity measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following financial year saw her total remuneration increase to R11.534 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This included R5.2 million in guaranteed remuneration, a R4.2 million short-term incentive, R630,000 in bonus-matching shares and a retrospective R1.5 million performance bonus relating to the 2021 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spur explained that formal performance assessments began in 2022 and that Nichas met her personal scorecard requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, her total remuneration increased further to R12.422 million. This included R5.645 million in guaranteed remuneration, a R6.083 million performance bonus and R676,000 in bonus-matching shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, her remuneration declined to R11.161 million in 2024, as the short-term incentive decreased to R4.658 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although her guaranteed remuneration increased to R5.957 million, the company attributed the lower incentive to financial performance scores that were below budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest increase came in 2025, when her total remuneration nearly doubled to R20.588 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While her guaranteed remuneration increased to R6.255 million and her short-term incentive reached R4.952 million, the main contributor was R8.788 million from the vesting of long-term share appreciation rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These rights were allocated in October 2021 and vested in October 2024 after the company achieved the required headline earnings and headline earnings per share performance conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TOP performance as CEO <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the 2026 financial year, Nichas received total remuneration of R26.057 million, equivalent to approximately R501,000 per week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This represented a 26.6% increase from the previous year. Her guaranteed remuneration reached R6.599 million, while her short-term incentive increased to R5.375 million. A further R13.443 million came from long-term share appreciation rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company said her short-term incentive reflected an actual business performance score of 102.5% and a personal performance factor of 133%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her performance assessments remained positive throughout her tenure, with weighted-average scorecard ratings ranging from 3.4 to 3.9 out of 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The remuneration increases coincided with a substantial expansion of Spur’s business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over its five-year strategy period, from 2021 to 2026, the group’s restaurant turnover more than doubled, from R6 billion to R12.3 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adjusted profit before tax increased from R147.8 million to R453 million, while adjusted earnings per share rose from 110.85 cents to 376.65 cents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s share price also increased from R19.25 in 2021 to R43.10 in 2026, reaching a record high of R45.49 on 29 May 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The restaurant network also expanded to 751 locations, comprising 639 South African restaurants and 112 international outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nichas also oversaw changes to the group’s traditional restaurant model, which included the introduction of Spur and RocoMamas drive-thrus, click-and-collect services, and virtual kitchen brands such as Just Wingz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also acquired a 60% controlling interest in the Doppio Collection, which includes Doppio Zero, Piza e Vin, and Modern Tailors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spur chairman Mike Bosman credited Nichas and her leadership team with providing renewed strategic focus and organisational cohesion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its 2026 integrated report, the company described the financial year as the culmination of its five-year strategy, highlighting improvements in leadership capacity, accountability, employee engagement, and overall business performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the remuneration table for CEO Val Nichas from FY2021 to FY2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Year<\/th>Base salary<\/th>STI<\/th>LTI<\/th>LTI: SARs Vesting<\/th>Performance Bonus<\/th>Allowances & Other<\/th>Total<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
2021<\/strong><\/td>R2.60 million<\/td>R0<\/td>R0<\/td>R0<\/td>R0<\/td>R0<\/td>R2.60 million<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
2022<\/strong><\/td>R5.20 million<\/td>R4.20 million<\/td>R630,000 <\/td>R0<\/td>R1.5 million<\/td>R47 ,000 <\/td>R11.53<\/strong> million<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
2023<\/strong><\/td>R5.65 million<\/td>R6.08 million<\/td>R676,000 <\/td>R0<\/td>R0<\/td>R18,000 <\/td>R12.42<\/strong> million<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
2024<\/strong><\/td>R5.96 million<\/td>R4.66 million<\/td>R518,000 <\/td>R0<\/td>R0<\/td>R28 ,000 <\/td>R11.20<\/strong> million<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
2025<\/strong><\/td>R6.26 million<\/td>R4.95 million<\/td>R550,000 <\/td>R8.79 million<\/td>R0<\/td>R43,000 <\/td>R20.59<\/strong> million<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
2026<\/strong><\/td>R6.60 million<\/td>R5.38 million<\/td>R597,000 <\/td>R13.44 million<\/td>R0<\/td>R43,000 <\/td>R26.06<\/strong> million<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Total <\/strong><\/td>R32.26 million<\/strong><\/td>R25.27 million<\/strong><\/td>R2.97 million<\/strong><\/td>R22.23 million<\/strong><\/td>R1.5 million<\/strong> <\/td>R179,000 <\/strong><\/td>R84.36<\/strong> million <\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Val Nichas pay at Spur increase from R2.6 million when she joined the restaurant group in 2021 to more than R26 million in 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":883403,"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":"2119808490566762895","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2267059800781085","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[853,14335],"class_list":["post-883344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-south-africa","tag-spur-corporation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883344","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883344"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":883487,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883344\/revisions\/883487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/883403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}