CHURCH’S Chicken, a division of US based AFC Enterprises announced the signing of a master franchise agreement with South African-based Steers Holdings to sub-franchise the development and operation of 100 Church’s Chicken restaurants over the next five years.
The franchise agreement awards exclusive rights to Steers Holdings to sub-franchise Church’s Chicken restaurants in South Africa, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, Tanzania, Ghana, Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Cameroon. The first restaurant is scheduled to open in South Africa by early April 2002. The restaurants will serve American Southern-style fried chicken, sandwiches, and traditional side items including Honey-Butter biscuits, okra, corn on the cob, jalapeno peppers, coleslaw, French fries, and mashed potatoes with gravy. Steers Holdings have over 450 branded restaurants in SA. Their restaurant holdings include Steers, a flame-grilled hamburger chain; Debonairs, a pizza concept; and FishAways, seafood quick service restaurants. “We were looking to add a high-quality, branded chicken restaurant chain to expand our current portfolio,” says Kevin Hedderwick, Chief Operations Officer for Steers Holdings. “Church’s made sense for us as they have global brand recognition, a streamlined operating system, and experienced support teams,” added Hedderwick. Church’s Chicken president, Hala Moddelmog, has been eyeing the African market for franchise development for a few years. “Church’s was searching for the right franchise partner to introduce the Church’s Chicken brand to Africa. Steers Holdings has the proven franchising expertise and infrastructure to make Church’s a tremendous success across Africa.” In addition to the Africa agreement, Church’s signed franchise development agreements in 2001 to open restaurants in Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, Jamaica, Bahamas, Aruba, Curacao, and St. Marteen. Church’s currently has franchised restaurants operating in the United States, Puerto Rico and eight other countries. – Sapa