Risk management in 2025

Bolstering business resilience

Every operational site has business continuity and disruption plans in place. We have solar installations and backup generators to ensure efficiency and increased energy independence. In 2025, our business resilience plans focused on supporting water security for our Gauteng operations. This included addressing water interruptions, possible water quality and low pressure issues.

We are implementing a plan to safeguard our operating sites and assets against identified risk exposures including fire, flooding, crime and civil unrest. Our fire risk engineering programme, which will be completed in 2026, has enabled better negotiations and pricing with insurers. Our insurance renewal cycle for 2024/2025 proceeded smoothly with our year-on-year premium cost on all policies showing an overall 1% saving.

We continue to work with our broker and insurers to meet insurers’ underwriting requirements. Our cell captive, which administers in the main our predetermined and agreed aggregates on motor and property damage and business interruption, was established in 2023. This year, we continued to optimise the cell captive and begun expanding it to cover other risk classes related to people and information technology.

Famous Brands supports its franchise partners in securing alternative power solutions during load shedding. We also provide advice on optimal solutions, energy efficiency and transitioning to gas equipment. Energy relief breaks are in place for sales generated during load shedding. However, load shedding was suspended for most of our financial year.

Reducing compliance-related risks

Famous Brands has a comprehensive Regulatory Compliance Framework that maps the relevant legislative universe across our markets and limits our compliance-related risks. In 2025, we operationalised a governance, risk and compliance (GRC) tool to enhance risk management and regulatory compliance in our markets. In 2026, we will implement a specialised software tool to manage our regulatory compliance in different markets Here.

We track our compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and utilise the internal audit assurance process to identify areas for improvement. We monitor data protection laws across all our markets.

Developing our cybersecurity capabilities

The evolving cyber threat landscape presents growing risks, from AI-driven phishing and deepfake attacks to ransomware, insider threats, Internet of Things (IoT) vulnerabilities, and stricter regulatory enforcement, all of which demand stronger security measures and proactive defence strategies.

In 2025, we strengthened our cybersecurity capabilities through key projects focused on infrastructure protection, threat detection, and risk management. We enhanced our security governance and controls by aligning security frameworks with risk exposures across various markets and refining policies, compliance monitoring, and governance structures.

In 2026, we will focus on maturing existing security infrastructure and technologies to maximise protection while controlling costs. We will strengthen our foundation and address high-risk areas, improve detection, incident response, data protection and governance. We will also mature IT security in other key markets by implementing a structured three-year plan. Read more about our technology governance here.