For most South Africans, Spur is a restaurant we associate with growing up: birthday parties, Cheddamelt burgers and family nights out. But the group behind it has been going through a pretty remarkable transformation. Spur Corporation, which also owns Panarottis, RocoMamas and John Dory's, has more than doubled in value over the past five years. And this week, the woman responsible for much of that turnaround made headlines for earning R26 million in the year to June, about half of it from share rights that vested during the year.
The crisis Val Nichas inherited
Back in 2021, Spur was in a pretty rough place. Covid lockdowns had crippled restaurant trade, earnings had collapsed, dividends were suspended and the group had been through a wave of senior leadership exits. Its share price had taken a beating too. That's when Val Nichas, a former Famous Brands executive, took over as CEO, succeeding Pierre van Tonder after his 38 years with the group.
Rather than simply trying to get Spur back to where it was before Covid, she came in with a five-year strategy to rethink how the business operated. As she writes in the company's latest annual report, returning to the business as it was before the pandemic would not have prepared it for the future. The choice, she says, was to rebuild and reinvent at the same time.
How the five-year plan worked
A big part of that strategy involved refreshing Spur's existing brands. More than 100 Spur restaurants now trade under the new-look concept, 89% of the Panarottis network carries its updated design, and RocoMamas passed R1 billion in annual restaurant sales for the first time this year. Nichas also wanted to expand into other parts of the restaurant industry. So in 2023, Spur bought 60% of the Doppio Collection, bringing Doppio Zero, Piza e Vino and Modern Tailors into the group and a bigger share of daytime dining with them.
Another major focus was making life easier for franchisees, who put their own money into the restaurants. Spur introduced smaller restaurant formats that cost less to open, and used its buying power to save franchisees R127.6 million through bulk buying and tenders since 2021. It also got rid of businesses that weren't performing, selling its Nikos chain back to its founding partners in March after struggling to scale the brand. Not every new idea, as Nichas puts it, should become a permanent part of the portfolio.
What the numbers show now
Five years later, the results speak for themselves. Annual restaurant sales have roughly doubled to R12.3 billion, while adjusted profit before tax has more than tripled to R453 million. The group has grown from 624 restaurants to 751 across 14 countries, and plans to open another 66 this financial year, 50 of them in South Africa. In May, its share price hit a record R45.49, the highest since Spur listed on the JSE in 1986.
Of course, not everything has gone to plan. John Dory's sales fell 11.2% over the past year as seafood competitors cut prices, and the brand is now being rationalised, although at about R375 million in sales it's a small part of the group. The adjusted profit figure also leaves out a R129.5 million provision for a legal claim from GPS, which Spur is appealing in February 2027.
Five years ago, Nichas was brought in to rescue a struggling restaurant group. Today, she's running a business whose share price has more than doubled, with a new five-year strategy cycle starting this financial year. The R26 million pay cheque grabbed the headlines, but the turnaround behind it is the bigger story.
