Nompumelelo Magwaza
Famous Brands’ contract to provide a branded restaurant and retail solution to Netcare hospital cafés could be extended to corporate cafés, if the restaurant chain has its way.
Famous Brands chief executive Kevin Hedderwick said yesterday: “The concept of getting into corporate business was certainly Famous Brands’ deliberate strategy.”
Although the group did not have any planned deals with corporate giants yet, it was looking at businesses like Standard Bank, Nedbank and Investec, which run corporate cafés on site for their staff. “If those companies decide they want to outsource that kind of business we could act as a possible provider for them.”
The Netcare venture was an example of how Famous Brands was planning to move into non-conventional restaurant markets.
“Our stated growth strategy is to increase Famous Brands’ presence in various markets segments. The private hospital arena is an example of that,” Hedderwick said.
The group’s franchise, Creative Coffee, was specially tailored for Netcare’s Net Café contract. The format of these cafés would comprise a fully-fledged convenience retail and restaurant offering. The same rigorous brand principles employed throughout Famous Brands’ high street branded franchises network would be applied in all 38 existing coffee shops in Netcare’s hospitals under the Net Café brand.
He said this deal would not include industrial catering services to hospital canteens for staff and patient meals. “The cafés would just be in front of the hospitals. The plan was to reach a captive market rather than the usual visitors [to other group restaurants] who come to sit and eat or who come for leisure.”
Brent Kairuz, the managing executive of Creative Coffees, said: “The new Net Café outlets will be designed to deliver an exceptional experience to all Netcare customers.
“This will include customised offerings in certain retail environments such as on-site preparations of flowers and gifts.”
Within a hospital environment, retail was a significant component of the overall sales mix of a hospital coffee shop because there was a strong demand from consumers for convenience purchases, he said.
Absa Investment equity analyst Chris Gilmour believed Netcare made the right decision by requesting a company such as Famous Brands to deal with the cafés.
“Netcare is very good at running hospitals but maybe not cafés, in that respect it must have taken them a long time to find the operator.”
He said Famous Brands would be a good partner because of its experience in coffee shops and that it had somewhat dominated the coffee café market. He said there was no doubt Famous Brands was aiming for the corporate cafés saying the staff working for big firms would definitely find the company’s brands classier.
The shares closed unchanged at R69.45.