Johannesburg - The festive season has a brought some spark in the restaurant business with customers flocking in their numbers for their favourite meals and drinks.
Grand Parade Investment (GPI), which owns Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbens, this week said it expected to do better than in previous years this festive season.
Grand Parade chief executive Alan Keet said Burger King, in particular, had seen an increase in sales during the festive season in the past three years.
“Usually during this period, there is a noticeable increase in ticket average as families look for convenience but don’t want to compromise on quality,” he said.
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Fast-food outlet Chicken Licken also confirmed that it was enjoying a bumper season. The group said its Rock My Soul flavour was particularly popular.
“We are busy at this time. People are coming in their numbers to get their favourite flavours. We had high numbers of people sitting down and others ordering takeaways,” Chicken Licken said.
Famous Brands, which owns 22 casual dining and fast-food brands, said the business was doing better this year compared to the corresponding period last year. Chief executive Darren Hele said their restaurants experienced a flood of customers at weekends.
“We are meeting expectations so far, but we expect more once people take holidays. We expect more this weekend as a lot of people would be travelling for the holidays,” Hele said.
Casual dining restaurant Nando's also said it was still too early to predict, but the holiday season was the busiest in trading.
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Nando's said customers opted for takeaways instead of in-store dining. “However, as people start to have more time on their hands and the hustle gets less, people enjoy coming into our beautiful Afro-Portuguese-inspired restaurant to dine in and to enjoy their favourite meal with their friends and family,” it said.
“Families often choose our full house sharing meal which is now our new smoky, sweet Mozambican paprika basting.
"Our recently launched livers and casa pap is also proving a very popular choice. The sol salada and designer drinks are also climbing the charts this festive season.”