LETTER: Franchise groups are killing businesses

Doppio Zero has just been gobbled up by the Spur group, taking away the awesome entrepreneurial spirit of its founders.

Spur owns a number of brands: Rocco Mamas, Nikos, Captain DoRego, Panarottis and so on.

The Spur group was quick off the mark to increase its prices after Covid-19, to such an extent that visiting their outlets is damn near prohibitive. For those who don’t know, the selling prices on its menus includes 15% Vat payable to Sars, and the 12% royalty and marketing cost payable by the franchisee to the Spur group coffers.

In addition, all Spur outlets are obliged to buy all their in-store requirements, ingredients and so on through the wholly owned distribution centre, loading the prices and making handsome profits. It’s a rip-off and this applies to all the other monoliths such as Famous Brands and Ocean Basket.

The sadness is that today there are fewer privately owned restaurants in SA offering unique and original cuisine at a reasonable price. The proliferation of these large franchise groups has killed what once was an imaginative and robust industry.

Peter Bachtis 
Benoni 

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