We believe that strong, sustainable stakeholder relationships form the foundation of our ability to create shared value in the short, medium, and long term.
Our key stakeholders are the individuals and organisations that have an impact on or are affected by our operations. We endeavour to engage constructively with stakeholders to understand and respond to their interests and concerns.
Stakeholder management
Stakeholders are engaged by employees and business units with the expertise to do so constructively. Our stakeholder engagement and management principles rest on positive partnerships, consultation and teamwork to achieve common goals.
The functional disciplines embed the structured and thorough processes of monitoring stakeholder engagement, including:
- Investor input and feedback through investor roadshows, one-on-one access, and virtual events.
- Formal customer feedback through customer service channels.
- Monitoring social media for negative and positive reviews.
- Community involvement through CSI activities.
- The Human Resources (HR) department provides a union relationship monitoring mechanism.
- Employee feedback through annual surveys.
- Franchise partner feedback through regular engagement, national representative forums and annual franchise forums.
Concerns and improvement opportunities are escalated to the responsible senior executives or the Exco or the Board if necessary.
The Social and Ethics Working Group assists the Social and Ethics Committee on an executive level to ensure effective stakeholder management within Famous Brands. The Working Group reports to the Social and Ethics Committee regularly.
While the Social and Ethics Committee has the primary responsibility for oversight of stakeholder management, other Board Committees are also involved. The Audit and Risk Committee oversees engagement with the JSE, funder institutions, shareholders and investors. The Remuneration Committee oversees interactions with shareholders and employees regarding remuneration decisions.
Read more in the Social and Ethics Committee report.
Stakeholder communications channels
The Group’s stakeholder engagement strategy guides interactions with stakeholders. Our engagement strategies are based on the degree to which our stakeholders impact us, our impact on them, and how we interact with them.
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Various engagement channels are utilised, which include:
Identifying our priority stakeholders
We use the following criteria to prioritise the relative importance of our wide range of stakeholders:
- Our dependence on the stakeholder’s support to achieve our strategic goals.
- The stakeholder’s influence on our performance.
- The significance of the risks and opportunities linking the stakeholder to the Group.
- The risks we face should we not engage constructively with the stakeholder.
Evaluating the quality of relationships with our stakeholders
This evaluation is based on our internal assessment of our relationships.
1. Shareholders, market analysts and prospective investors
Stakeholder role
Provide financial capital for growth
Their primary interest and our goal
Solid investment proposition and sustainable growth
Board/Exco member accountable
Darren Hele, Deon Fredericks and Celeste Appollis
2. Funding institutions
Stakeholder role
Provide financial capital for growth and facilitate balance sheet support
Their primary interest and our goal
Responsible capital management
Board/Exco member accountable
Darren Hele and Deon Fredericks
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Internal assessment of relationship quality |
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3. Franchise partners
Stakeholder role
The primary interface with our customers, custodians of our brand and reputation
Their primary interest and our goal
Supportive, preferred business partner
Board/Exco member accountable
Darren Hele, Derrian Nadauld, Philip Smith and Andrew Mundell
4. Customers and prospective customers
Stakeholder role
Purchase our products, providing the basis for revenue growth
Their primary interest and our goal
First-choice brand offering
Board/Exco member accountable
Darren Hele, Derrian Nadauld, Philip Smith and Andrew Mundell
5. Civil society and communities
Stakeholder role
Provide the socio-economic context we operate in and impact on our reputation
Their primary interest and our goal
Responsible community participant
Board/Exco member accountable
Darren Hele, Philip Smith and Jabulani Mahange
6. Suppliers and business partners
Stakeholder role
Contribute to our ability to provide quality, cost-effective products and services
Their primary interest and our goal
Preferred business partner
Board/Exco member accountable
Darren Hele, Derrian Nadauld, Andrew Mundell and JP Renouprez
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Internal assessment of relationship quality |
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7. Employees
Stakeholder role
Contribute to our ability to provide quality, cost-effective products and services
Their primary interest and our goal
Continued employment, good working conditions and rewards
Board/Exco member accountable
Darren Hele, Derrian Nadauld, Andrew Mundell and JP Renouprez
Caring for employee wellbeing
Famous Brands engaged ICAS to provide employees with access to an Employee Wellness Programme. The programme aims to give employees the freedom to unpack their feelings and find solutions to the many problems people experience.
The overall engagement rate of the programme, which includes uptake of all services provided, was 4.1% for 2022. The individual usage of the core counselling and advisory services was 4%, which compares to 5.7% across all ICAS client companies. The most commonly utilised service was professional counselling.
The percentage of employees whose problems appear to have a severe impact on their work is 9.7%, which is slightly below the ICAS average of 10%. This is a pleasing indication of the overall employee mental wellbeing given the pressure of the industry, which includes long and irregular working hours, demanding customers and difficult situations.
8. Trade unions
Stakeholder role
Serve as the interface with our unionised labour force
Their primary interest and our goal
Responsive employer
Board/Exco member accountable
Jabulani Mahange
9. Government and regulators
Stakeholder role
Provide regulatory parameters and measures with cost implications, and provide operating licences
Their primary interest and our goal
Responsible corporate citizen
Board/Exco member accountable
Darren Hele, Celeste Appollis, Deon Fredericks, Ntando Ndaba and Jabulani Mahange
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Internal assessment of relationship quality |
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Engage
