Human capital report

We view our HR professionals as strategic business partners who contribute to strategy development and identify the human capital levers that enable its execution. They also develop efficient HR practices and enhance employee capacity while leading change management initiatives.

Employee value proposition

We strive to create a supportive environment where employees receive the right tools and training and are rewarded and recognised for their performance. Our EVP addresses the Group’s main human capital challenges, which include attracting and retaining talent in a competitive market, upskilling and reskilling employees for new work requirements and ensuring effective succession planning. We regularly review and update our EVP to ensure it remains relevant. In 2025, we relaunched our EVP to educate our employees about our holistic offering through visually appealing and effective storytelling.

Our EVP elements are as follows:

Driving a

winning culture

Focusing

on the world of work

Career

development

Benefits

and well-being

Rewards

and recognition

The Famous Brands People Promise

T

Thrive

S

Shine

S

Succeed

G

Grow

Entrenching our core beliefs

We seek to cement our position as the leading, innovative, branded franchise and food services business in South Africa and selected markets. This vision is anchored by our Core Beliefs here, which shape our organisational culture and values-driven leadership.

We communicate our vision, purpose and core beliefs across the Group and ensure that they are entrenched in every aspect of people management. Our core beliefs are integrated into our performance management and influence reward and recognition across the Group.

Our annual employee survey, Voice your View, provides an opportunity for employees to give feedback on how we uphold these core beliefs.

Cascading our strategy

In December 2024, Exco introduced monthly online Isikgotla sessions that are available to all administration employees1. These sessions explain strategic initiatives, provide performance updates, and invite employee feedback — promoting engagement and alignment.

Grow and Lead Awards

The Grow and Lead Awards is an annual platform that acknowledges administration employees’ exceptional achievements, especially those that embody our Core Beliefs. Nominations are made from each department or business unit.

1 Administration employees refer to non-unionized employees in South Africa and other markets.

Voice your View Employee Survey

Launched in 2015, this annual survey gathers employee feedback on culture, leadership, happiness, and communication via 67 statements rated on a five-point scale.

Results are converted to percentages and averaged to yield an overall score (2024: 77%). Net Promoter Score (NPS) dropped to 14.1 in 2024, largely due to delayed increases and a reduced bonus pool.

The overall response rate was

93%
(2024: 94%)2

The overall score declined slightly to

77%
(2024: 78%)

The NPS declined to

14.1
(2024: 22.3)

2 In 2024, this was incorrectly reported as 84%.

Our world of work cascades the Group’s business strategy into divisional and business unit strategies down to personal scorecards, aiming to optimize business outputs and results. It also includes comprehensive onboarding and induction programmes, flexible working hours, and the option for some employees to apply for four days per month of work from home.

HR digitalisation

We continue to automate and digitalise the HR environment to remove repetitive, manual HR tasks and improve our analytics capabilities. In 2024, we introduced SAGE 300 People, which offers HR and payroll and an employee self-service (ESS) portal. This was first implemented for administration employees. In August 2024, we rolled out the ESS portal to all bargaining unit employees. Bargaining unit employees can access free Wi-Fi at work to interact with the portal on their mobile devices.

In 2026, we will implement HR solutions to further digitalise our HR processes. These include:

  • A cloud-based and scalable solution to digitally manage our recruitment, employee onboarding and exiting processes.
  • A digital remuneration management solution.
  • A mobile-based employee communications platform that allows us to distribute content, stream webcasts and conduct surveys. This will allow us to communicate with the bargaining unit and administration employees simultaneously.

Upskilling and supporting our employees is crucial to developing a robust talent pipeline and enhancing employee retention. We assist employees in identifying personal development goals through an annual Personal Development Plan. Our career development includes:

  • Leadership development and sponsored courses.
  • Technical and job-specific training with e‑Learning.
  • Financial assistance for approved studies.
  • Opportunities to work on innovative projects.

We have a strong partnership with FOODBEV SETA, offering technical skills training funded under SETA for our Supply Chain supervisory staff.

Recruitment and retention

We deploy strategies to attract and retain top talent, focusing on key and specialised skills within Leading Brands. With the addition of internal and Group recruitment specialists in 2024 and an employee referral reward process, we’re better at matching skills and culture—while saving on recruitment fees—and 2025 retention stats look strong.

Key career development indicators

732
employees trained in SA
(2024: 906)
R10.1 m
training spend in SA
(2024: R7.5 m)
27
internships completed
(2024: 41)
68
Ethics Programme delegates
(2024: 88)

Recruitment and retention statistics

85.4%
retention rate
(90.7%)
84
internal promotions
(2024: 101)
615
external appointments
(2024: 536)
6 – 8
weeks average time to hire
(2024: 6 – 8 weeks)

Succession and leadership development

We are broadening our leadership and succession programmes to more high-potential employees to reinforce our strategy of growing our own talent.

In 2025, our “ready now” succession score fell to 22% (2024: 32.5%), reflecting a broader pool increase from 33 to 73. Panels comprising Exco and managers now regularly assess progress of these high-potential employees.

Famous Brands runs several leadership and succession programmes across the Group.

International Executive Development Programme (IEDP) Tailored leadership courses (4–17 weeks) for Exco-level staff at top international universities.
Executive Development Programme (EDP) Leadership development for senior managers via short university courses.
Managers Challenge (MC) Middle management exposed to leadership best‑practices through action learning; ~18 managers participate annually.
Junior Management Programme (JMP) A 12‑month leadership development programme for junior managers (~15 participants).
Supervisory Development Programme (SDP) A 12‑month programme for Supply Chain supervisors (~15 participants annually).

iPerform statistics for 2025

2 829
courses completed
1 612
courses completed by women
2 509
courses by ACI employees
100 %
average completion rate

Our eLearning offering – iPerform

The iPerform training platform (launched 2021) delivers 3 000+ eBooks and online courses on business management and Famous Brands–specific content. Users can explore beyond roles, download podcasts, and share content. It also integrates with Bookboon for audio and eBooks.

The latest iPerform update enhances performance management. Bargaining unit staff in seven Manufacturing and Logistics sites can now access training via cyber centres, with two more centres planned for 2026.

Key employee well-being indicators

67
lost time injuries
(2024: 71)
1 427
on-site clinic visits
(2024: 1 264)
0.76%
LTIR
(2024: 0.74%)
8.75%
use employee wellness provider
(2024: 7.95%)

We support employee well-being by providing the following:

  • Medical aid, medical insurance and provident fund.
  • On-site clinic at Head Office.
  • Access to an employee wellness provider offering counselling.
  • Group risk cover, including disability benefit (three times annual salary tax-free) and dread disease protection.

Employee wellness

Employee wellness, especially mental health, is a growing focus area. Depression and stress are our main wellness issues, often linked to financial pressure. We’re partnering with Nedbank to offer budgeting and financial wellness training.

We work with Lyra (formerly ICAS) to deliver our Employee Wellness Programme. This gives employees access to counselling and mental health support. In 2025, the programme’s total engagement rate was 2.2% (2024: 5.1%), and 8.7% of employees used core counselling services (2024: 7.9%). In 2026, we’ll relaunch the programme to improve awareness and usage. Mental health training for line managers and expanded medical coverage will be key focus areas.

Rethinking remuneration for scarce skills

We are developing a bespoke remuneration approach to attract and retain key skills for Leading Brands. Key roles and skills have been identified for retention, and exit interviews analysed to improve our offering to these individuals.

Employment Tax Incentive (ETI) programme

In October 2024, Famous Brands joined the South African Employment Tax Incentive (ETI), a government programme that encourages hiring and retaining young employees (aged 18–29). By year-end, the Group saved R1.6 million in PAYE taxes.

Read about our Remuneration Policy.

Trade union engagement

Famous Brands maintains a constructive relationship with trade unions. Employees have the right to associate with relevant unions, which mainly represent our Logistics and Manufacturing employees. We recognise three unions: Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU), Security, Cleaning, Manufacturing and Allied Workers Union (SCMWU), and National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (NUPSAW). Our two-year wage agreement expired in February 2025, and in April 2025, we successfully concluded a new two-year agreement with all three unions.