Signature Brands
There are 122 Signature Brands restaurants in South Africa. Except for PAUL1, with a non-controlling shareholder, Signature Brands are 100% owned by Famous Brands. There are eight Company-owned restaurants within the portfolio.
Read more about our Signature Brands portfolio here.
| Salient features | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Segment revenue (%) | 2.5 | 3 |
| Like-for-like sales growth (%) | (0.5) | 6.0 |
| Operating profit margin (%) | (5.7) | (1.9) |
| Total number of restaurants | 122 | 132 |
| New restaurants opened | 5 | 5 |
| Number of restaurants revamped or converted | 3 | 3 |
| Number of restaurants closed | 14* | 19** |
| Company-owned restaurants | 8 | 8 |
* Included in this figure are the five Fego Caffés that were converted to Mugg & Bean restaurants.
** Included in this figure are the 10 Fego Caffés that were converted to Mugg & Bean restaurants and one Fego Caffé that was converted to a Vovo Telo.
Performance and trading conditions
Signature Brands’ system-wide sales declined by (1)%, (including Pick n Pay), and like-for-like sales decreased by (0.4)% (including Pick n Pay). These declines can be attributed to restaurant closures and declining consumer spending on eating out. The reduction in disposable income can also be seen in lower transaction sizes as consumers who do eat out select affordable options. Consumers in middle to higher income brackets are under increasing pressure due to higher than inflation increases in living expenses, including electricity, municipal rates, medical aid and school fees.
The overall profit margin declined to (5.7)% (2024: (1.9%)). Pressures on input costs include higher electricity pricing, staff salary increases and securing alternative water solutions during water outages. However, the portfolio benefited from lower diesel costs due to the cessation of load shedding.
We began the Munch Software POS implementation across the portfolio with seven restaurants onboarded by year-end. We continued to leverage partnerships with third-party aggregators to drive delivery volumes. The order and collect channel is also gaining momentum.
In May 2024, we launched digital gift cards that can be redeemed across the portfolio.
We have a solid pipeline of restaurant openings, including several new openings that were postponed due to development delays.
Fun Dining
Growth of the Fun Dining category continues to be hampered by low consumer discretionary spend. Turn ‘n Tender delivered the strongest growth in the category due to its well-placed locations. Late night trade remains depressed, which can be attributed to deteriorating road infrastructure and security concerns. The festive season was subdued as companies cut back on end-of-year party expenses. We experienced several delays in receiving liquor licences for our new restaurants, which impacted alcohol sales.
Captive Markets
Our hospital brands, NetCafé and Coffee Couture, continued to perform well, driven by strong foot traffic in hospitals. The brands have benefited from simplified menus and an expanded retail offering. We continue to explore other opportunities to expand these brands, including through smaller hospital groups and independents.
We converted five Fego Caffés to Mugg & Bean restaurants, with the remaining five, four to Mugg & Bean and one to Vovo Telo, to be converted in 2026
In February 2025, Pick n Pay and Famous Brands mutually agreed to end the contract for The Roastery, an in-store coffee kiosk within the Pick n Pay supermarket network.
Luxury
While PAUL’s differentiated and elegant offering continues to attract higher-income clientele in Johannesburg and Cape Town, the brand faces the same consumer pressures felt by the Fun Dining category. We continue to reengineer the menu and refine the business model to reduce costs and improve gross margin. In 2025, many of our restaurants with large outdoor seating areas were negatively affected by South Africa's severely cold winter weather. PAUL opened a new restaurant in Alberton in Gauteng.
Focus areas for 2026
We will continue to grow selected brands in South Africa with a focus on securing premium sites at attractive rentals. Managing franchise partner profitability and sustainability remains a priority. We will continue to implement the Munch POS solution. In 2026, the conversion of Fego Caffés to Mugg & Bean restaurants will be completed
- ● Best Steakhouse in the Best of Johannesburg Awards 2024
- ● Best Greek Restaurant in the Best of Johannesburg Awards 2024
- ● Best Mexican Restaurant in Best of Pretoria Awards
- ● SALSA Sun City was awarded the Best Restaurant in Resort in the Sun City Sun Heroes Awards
- ● SALSA Menlyn Maine received a RASA Rosetta Awards Service Excellence Awards
- ● Best Italian Restaurant in the Best of Durban Awards 2024
- ● Best Italian Restaurant in the Best of Pretoria Awards 2024
- ● Best Restaurant in the Best of Midstream Restaurant Awards 2024
SADC
The SA Leading Brands team manages the Leading Brands’ SADC market, which includes Angola, Botswana, DRC, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. There are 224 restaurants in this region. While Mauritius is a SADC country it is managed by the AME team.
|
Start of 2025 |
New stores |
Revamped/ relocated stores |
Stores closed |
End of 2025 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steers | 49 | 7 | 3 | – | 56 |
| Debonairs Pizza | 94 | 8 | 6 | – | 102 |
| Fishaways | 6 | – | – | – | 6 |
| Mugg & Bean | 21 | 3 | 2 | – | 6 |
| Wimpy | 23 | – | 4 | 2 | 21 |
| Milky Lane | 9 | 2 | – | – | 11 |
| Keg | 4 | 1 | – | 1 | 4 |
| Turn ‘n Tender | 1 | – | – | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 207 | 21 | 15 | 4 | 224 |
| Salient features | 2025 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Segment revenue (%) | 5.1 | 5.1 |
| Operating profit margin (%) | 11.2 | 13.4 |
| New restaurants opened | 21 | 22 |
| Number of restaurants revamped or converted | 15 | 15 |
| Number of restaurants closed | 4 | 4 |
Trading conditions
In several SADC markets, franchise partners face significant pressure due to sharp increases in food input costs, electricity, diesel expenses and drought.
We have a large presence in Botswana (51 restaurants), Namibia (48 restaurants) and Zambia (60 restaurants). Botswana’s economy contracted primarily due to a downturn in the global diamond market, a major export for the country. Other challenges included government restrictions on fresh product imports, affecting food costs and supply, adverse weather resulting in temporary restaurant closures and increased competitor activities.
Namibia’s growth prospects have improved on the back of major oil and gas discoveries and optimism about the country’s prospects. However, the economy faces challenges from weakened diamond demand and drought-affected sectors, resulting in dampened consumer demand. The country experienced inflationary pressures, which eased somewhat by year-end.
The drought in Zambia reduced hydropower, particularly the availability of water from Lake Kariba, resulting in load shedding for extended periods and severely affecting crop yields. Food inflation in Zambia expanded by an estimated 20%. Several SADC economies are susceptible to climate change impacts, and this year, economic growth in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe was impacted by drought.
Angola experienced a more stable trading environment with a positive currency outlook, inflation easing and excitement about the potential of the new airport in Luanda to boost tourism.
Mozambique experienced political instability leading to the presidential elections and post-election results, which were challenged by voters claiming election fraud. This violent political crisis resulted in border closures and the suspension of operations by logistics companies, which had a significant impact on trade.
Performance and focus areas
Revenue for the region increased by 10% to R451 million (2024: R409 million). Operating profit declined to R51 million (2024: R55 million), while the operating profit margin was 11.2% (2024: 13.4%). Despite economic challenges and inflationary pressures in several markets, our brands continue to demonstrate resilience and strong consumer appeal. In countries with high inflation, we need to implement more frequent menu price increases to maintain gross profit margin and enable sales growth to keep pace with inflation.
The lower sales volumes in Zambia impacted restaurant profitability and resulted in franchise partners deferring their new restaurant expansion plans. The Zambian network relied on alternative power solutions to keep trading. To assist, we offered franchise fee (0.5%) and marketing (0.5%) breaks to selected restaurants to safeguard their ongoing sustainability.
Despite some setbacks in the DRC development, we successfully launched a franchised Steers and Debonairs Pizza combination store in Lubumbashi in December 2024. This location is serviced and supported by our Zambia team. We opened our first Steers drive thru in Zimbabwe.
Technology
We continue to grow our own delivery capability for our QSR, including introducing outsourced call centres and implementing delivery hubs. We launched the first outsourced call centre in Zambia, which serves 51 restaurants and has resulted in an improved consumer experience and the removal of phones from restaurants serviced. We also opened our first delivery hub in Zambia, handling deliveries across six restaurants, with the hub’s performance exceeding expectations. Our SADC restaurants will follow the same digitisation strategy that has been entrenched in SA to bring the same efficiencies to franchise partners and benefits to consumers across the region. This includes digital menu solutions, kitchen display systems and self-service terminals.