Johannesburg - Shoprite will open a Debonairs Pizza restaurant in Angola in January and plans to set up more of the outlets alongside its Hungry Lion chicken chain across the continent.
“We realised some time back that partnering with a quality pizza brand to work alongside our established chicken brand was a win-win solution,” Adrian Basson, Hungry Lion’s chief executive officer, said in an e-mailed statement. “The team will investigate opportunities to roll this concept out to other African markets over the short to medium term.”
Shoprite Angola has a franchise to operate Debonairs Pizza, with the first site to open in January in Benguela, about 540 kilometers from the capital, Luanda.
A further six pizzerias will be established in Angola “soon,” Famous Brands, the owner of Debonairs Pizza and other fast-food chains such as Steers burger outlets, said in a statement.
The tie-up between Cape Town-based Shoprite and Johannesburg-based Famous Brands started last year with a Debonairs Pizza counter set up in a Shoprite supermarket in South Africa.
The success of that project encouraged the fast-food company to strengthen the alliance, Darren Hele, the head of Famous Brands food-services division, said in the statement. With the Angola store opening, Debonairs Pizza will be present in 14 countries across Africa and the Middle East.
Bloomberg