At the end of last year, Sarel Cilliers signed a lease on a retail site 135 square metres in size.
The site in Nelspruit’s Plaza Centre, opposite the police station and next to the taxi rank, was well-suited for a passing trade of foot traffic, but was bigger than he needed.
“When I got it, the landlord said ‘That’s the space available’,” the businessman recalls.
“I said ‘It’s too big’. He said I must come up with something else.”
Mr Cilliers opened a Debonairs Express pizza outlet in May. He then phoned Famous Brands CEO Kevin Hedderwick and told him he needed another business to use up the remaining space.
Mr Hedderwick told him to hang on, as he was in negotiations about a possible answer.
“My own franchisee network – 1500-odd in SA and Africa – have repeatedly asked us: ‘When are we going to get access to a chicken brand?'” Mr Hedderwick said yesterday. Read on.
