The Sunday News
Rutendo Nyeve, Business Reporter
LISTED fast food outlets company, Simbisa Brands, has significantly contributed to Zimbabwe’s job creation drive in the past six months, adding over 700 new positions.
The Southern region of the country has particularly benefitted, with 40 percent of these new jobs allocated to the area. The job growth is a result of Simbisa Brands’ expansion efforts, which included the opening of 31 new stores. With a total workforce now exceeding 5 700 employees, Simbisa Brands has reported a commendable revenue growth of 10 percent in the last six months.
Looking ahead, the company is focused on further expanding its footprint by opening an additional 47 stores. Further, the company is implementing brand applications aimed at enhancing brand visibility and driving growth in delivery sales.
Over the course of one year, Simbisa Brands successfully launched 31 new outlets in Zimbabwe, with 20 of these occurring in the latter half of the year. However, there were two setbacks in January, as two brand applications were reportedly unsuccessful.
Simbisa Brands Zimbabwe’s managing director, Mr Warren Meares, told Sunday News Business that the company will continue to bring on board more families in the expansion drive.
“As from September 2023 to February 2024, we have brought on board 701 family members following our expansion, which saw us opening 31 new stores across the country. About 40 percent of these people are from the Matabeleland region. Our employment portfolio in the nation is now at more than
700 employees. In the next three weeks we shall be opening a food court in Plumtree Town, as well as Steers in Gwanda. This will increase the number of families we are bringing on board, with 56 in Plumtree and 20 in Gwanda. We want to appreciate the Government and local authorities, particularly Bulawayo, which have supported our expansion drives. We also want to thank the people of Zimbabwe for trusting and supporting our brands and we will continue providing them with the best service,” said Mr Meares.
According to his report in the company’s unaudited abridged financial results for the half year ended 31 December 2023 released on Thursday, Group Chief Executive Officer, Mr Basil Dionisio, said the company registered revenue growth.
“The Zimbabwe operations achieved revenue growth of 10 percent for the half year period under review, largely driven by an increase in average spend, which increased nine percent versus the prior year and new store rollouts. Customer count growth was subdued, increasing just one percent in the first half of the fiscal year 2024 versus the prior year, a result of the challenging operating environment putting pressure on consumer disposable incomes.
“To counter the inflationary pressures on Gross Profit and Operating Margins, management has been leveraging the brands’ economies of scale to negotiate competitive prices from suppliers and service providers, engaging landlords to negotiate favourable rentals and aligning staff numbers to shop size to manage staff costs. The results have been favourable and margins improved on the prior year, resulting in increased profitability,” said Mr Dionisio.
He said Simbisa Zimbabwe will expand the number of stores with delivery services to expand its geographical reach to as many customers as possible.
“Zimbabwe opened 31 new counters between 31 December 2022 and 31 December 2023, 20 of which were opened in the half-year under review. There are an additional 27 new counters in the pipeline for second half of the fiscal year 2024 to bring the total number of new store openings for the fiscal year 2024 to 47.
“The new Chicken Inn and Pizza Inn apps were launched in January 2024, to be followed in the second half of the year 2024 by the remaining brand apps for Rocomamas, Ocean Basket and Spur. The new brand apps will improve brand visibility and be used to launch exclusive in-app promotions to drive delivery sales growth,” said Mr Dionisio.
Meanwhile, the Group has completed the acquisition of the Eswatini business, previously a franchised market and strategically restructured the under-performing markets (Zambia, Ghana, and Mauritius) by transitioning them to franchised operations under highly experienced franchisees ,saying this will enable the executive team to focus resources on growing and maximising shareholder returns from core markets.
