Famous Brands, the South African fast food company, is to launch its Steers brand in the UK next month in London, which could be the prelude of a further rollout of the flame-grilled burger format in the country.
The company, which currently operates over 500 sites under the brands, with the majority in South Africa, is to convert its Wimpy site in Clapham to a Steer. It first mooted a launch of the brand in the UK back in 2008.
Famous Brands chief executive Kevin Hedderwick said: “We’ve always said we wanted to export Steers at some point and there are lots if ex-pats living the UK.”
The group also reported a 9% fall in revenue across its c120-strong Wimpy estate in the UK to £5.3m for the year to the end of February.
It said that the brand had experienced another challenging year, with operating profit down 28% to £322k. The company plans to open a couple more sites under the brand by the end of this year.
Famous Brands, which acquired Wimpy UK in March 2007, currently operates over 2,040 franchised stores spread across South Africa, 17 African countries and the UK.
Its brand portfolio, which also includes Debonairs Pizza, FishAways, House of Coffees and Brazilian Café.
It recently announced its expansion into India with the launch of a pilot Debonairs Pizza restaurant scheduled for opening in Mumbai in July.
