South African fast food retailer Steers Holdings (STE) has acquired the business of Creative Coffee Franchise Systems, the franchisor of a range of coffee shops operating under the brand names House of Coffees Coffee Shops, ESP The Illy Boutique and Brazilian Coffee Shops.
Announcing the purchase on Thursday, Steers’ chief operating officer for franchising Kevin Hedderwick said Creative Coffee consists of 58 restaurants, comprising 38 House of Coffee outlets, 2 Illy Boutiques and 18 Brazilian Coffee
Shops. The transaction will be effective as at June 1 this year and is subject to certain precedent conditions, including the completion of a due diligence investigation.
These will be added to Steers Holdings’ current network of 532 outlets, including 318 Steers outlets, 172 Debonairs Pizza outlets, 30 FishAways outlets and 12 Church’s Chicken outlets.
“With the emergence of a new category, namely coffee, and the subsequent growth in number and popularity of franchised coffee outlets, we identified this acquisition as an opportunity to capitalise on that trend,” Hedderwick explained.
The group was forecasting strong upside potential for the growth of this category over the medium-to long term, he added. The acquisition is unrelated to the cautionary announcement published by Steers Holdings on March 28. – I-Net-Bridge