> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.businessbagel.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Roundup — Thursday, 1 October 2026 - URL: https://www.businessbagel.com/the-roundup-thursday-1-october-2026/ - Published: 2026-10-01T04:00:04.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-01T04:00:04.000Z - Author: Christian Maidman Today’s edition Counter Culture Presented by[![All Weather](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/allweather-logo.png)](https://allweather.co.za/?ref=businessbagel.com) Good morning. Spur is rethinking where South Africans eat, Capitec is becoming a lot more than a bank, and one company loan just made South Africa’s foreign investment appetite look a whole lot better than it really is. Not everything today is quite what the label says. Let’s get into it. --- MARKETS ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/markets--53-.png) --- GRAB AND GROW ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/Article-Spur-corp.png) ## South Africans are choosing convenience, so Spur is taking the restaurant to where its customers already are For a long time, eating out in South Africa meant going somewhere: you drove to the restaurant, found a table and settled in for a meal. Either we’re getting lazier or we’re putting a bigger premium on convenience, because that’s changing, and it presents an interesting problem for Spur Corporation. The group owns Spur, Panarottis, RocoMamas, John Dory’s and Doppio Zero, and much of that business has relied on getting people through the doors of sit-down restaurants. So it’s experimenting with the reverse: taking the restaurant to where the customer already is. **What the shift looks like:** - Fast food and takeaways are now the largest and fastest-growing part of eating out, worth R45.5 billion last year after growing 11.4%, Trade Intelligence says. - Doppio Zero’s café inside a Mediclinic, part restaurant and part grab-and-go shop, did close to R2 million in a single month, CEO Val Nichas said. - Its newest format, ROAM, runs from as little as 50m², and the first one reportedly cost R1.3 million to open, low enough for younger franchisees with less capital. Spur isn’t alone: as convenience decides more of where South Africans eat, restaurant groups are having to meet customers outside the traditional sit-down meal. [**Read the full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/spur-doppio-zero-formats-fast-food-competition/) --- NAME DROP ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/Article-capitec--1-.png) ## Capitec dropped Bank from its name, and its latest results show why A few weeks ago, Capitec dropped the word Bank from its name, and its latest results show why. Capitec Limited made R9.5 billion in headline earnings in the six months to August, up 19%, but a growing part of that has little to do with taking deposits and lending people money. The key is its 26.6 million active clients. Once someone already uses your account and app every day, you can offer them a lot more. Capitec now sells insurance, airtime, data and electricity, runs its own mobile service through Capitec Connect and has been expanding into payments. Insurance and fintech alone now bring in more than half of group earnings. That’s the bigger shift behind the new name: Capitec spent 25 years building an enormous banking customer base, and now it can keep those customers inside a much bigger ecosystem, selling them more without having to find a new customer each time. The bank is still the foundation. Increasingly, though, Capitec is building a much broader business on top of it. [**Read the full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/capitec-r9-5bn-profit-no-fee-increase/) --- BAGEL BITE **Which part of the plant is a potato?** **A.** Stem **B.** Root **C.** Seed --- DOING THE ROUNDS ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/Article-Shein.png) **Shein has become a go-to for South Africans looking for cheap clothes online, but the business behind those low prices is starting to feel the squeeze.** Its first results since listing in Hong Kong showed revenue grew just 1% in the first half of the year, while operating profit roughly halved. Its shares fell about 11% the next day. Higher freight costs and new customs rules are making Shein’s model more expensive, while the company is choosing to absorb much of those costs rather than push up prices.[**Full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/shein-first-results-share-fall-satin-ad-ruling/) **South Africa’s foreign investment more than doubled in the 2nd quarter.** Sounds great, until you see why. The Reserve Bank put it at R49.8 billion, up from R20.3 billion, but Reuters reports most of the jump came from one unnamed local telecoms company borrowing from its foreign parent. That counts as foreign investment, even though it’s basically money moving within the same corporate family.[**Full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/fdi-jump-telecom-parent-loan-formal-jobs-fall/) **South Africa had a record 10.5 million tourists last year, but we’re still missing some of the visitors who spend the most.** Tourists from the rest of Africa are now coming in bigger numbers than before Covid, while overseas arrivals remain below 2019 levels. BDO estimates those missing overseas tourists cost South Africa R6.5 billion in spending last year. China shows just how big the gap is: only 18,000 Chinese tourists visited in the first 7 months of this year, 67% fewer than in 2019.[**Full story →**](https://www.businessbagel.com/south-africa-record-tourists-r6-5bn-overseas-shortfall/) --- WEATHER ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/weather--49-.png) --- BAGEL GAMES ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/97/24/9724ffa3-48e9-48a7-a5f7-e38b7d2c9b36/content/images/2026/09/Wordle--53-.png) Have you got what it takes to win today’s Wordle? [**Play here →**](https://puzzel.org/en/wordle/play?p=-P2n-FHLLbuF%5FFu77TcC&ref=businessbagel.com) --- THE ANSWER As for the Bagel Bite, the answer is: **A. Stem** The potato stores energy for the plant in this thickened stem, ready to grow new shoots when conditions are suitable. The small dents on a potato, known as eyes, contain buds that can sprout into new plants. This is why a single potato left in a cupboard can start growing on its own. Carrots, by comparison, are swollen roots rather than stems. --- That’s your Thursday covered. Enjoyed it? Forward it on, a friend can subscribe in a click. Written by the Business Bagel crew.