Steers makeover to focus on core market

Image: Business Day

The listed company, which makes its money from supplying and distributing products to its franchised stores, including Steers, Wimpy and Mugg & Bean, said it would refocus Steers to concentrate on its core business - burgers.

The relaunch encompasses everything from the brand vision to its corporate identity and packaging, store design and menus, staff uniforms and standards, even the retail space and choice of equipment, Steers managing executive Val Bourdos said this week.

"We are aware of the imminent arrival of other players in the burger category. There are many attributes of Burger King that are similar to Steers. However, the barriers to entry are extremely high in SA, for example retail space is expensive. We couldn't be in a better space for their arrival. We believe we are positioned well and have many loyal followers," she said.

Famous Brands would be a formidable competitor for Burger King with its 520 Steers outlets across the country. Steers grew sales 6.5% in the year to February, and said it planned to open a further 20 stores this year.

The first new-look store is already open in The Zone, Rosebank, and the first revamped store, which is in Vanderbijlpark, opened in June.

McDonald's is one of Steers' most obvious competitors in SA in what analysts have called a saturated market.

Famous Brands has also for some time been eyeing a presence in SA's lucrative chicken market, dominated by Nando's and KFC. The relaunch will see the company focus efforts on beef and chicken burgers, Bourdos said.

The cost of the revamp will be funded by the franchisees. "The new stores will focus on food and not decor, they are smaller and more streamlined, simpler and more efficient," Bourdos said.

Source: Business Day