Famous Brands faces new era as CE quits

2 Dec 2015

After 16 years with the food franchisor, Famous Brands CE Kevin Hedderwick will retire...

Kevin Hedderwick.

He will hand over the position to the group's food services CE Darren Hele next March.

Hedderwick is credited with changing the face of SA's fast food industry, growing Famous Brands from a small, two-brand company into a group with 27 brands in Africa, the UK and the Middle East.

"Since his (Hedderwick's) appointment in 2000, the group's share price has increased from R1.69 per share to R141.53 per share, equating to a growth in market capitalisation from R105m to R14bn," one of the group's founders, Panagiotis Halamandaris, said.

Famous Brands listed on the JSE in 1994 as Steers Holdings. Today it has more than 2,500 franchised restaurants and a manufacturing and logistics arm - a long way from the single Steers outlet opened by the Halamandaris family in Johannesburg's southern suburbs in 1951. Hedderwick, who grew up in East London, held roles at Distell and SAB, and was also a Keg pub franchisee.

Chris Gilmour, an analyst at Absa Investments, describes Hedderwick as a true visionary.

"In much the same way that Pick n Pay did with Sean Summers, the Halamandaris family had to make a judgment call about how to move forward because there was a lot of competition back in those days from Spur. The family could take it just so far and they needed a professional manager to take it to new heights."

Hedderwick joined the group in 2000 as MD of the Steers brand. In 2001 he became chief operating officer, a position he held until his appointment as group CE in 2010.

"Hedderwick had a great reputation at SAB - he understood distribution, manufacturing and selling. Famous Brands was a good, solid family-owned company when he stepped into the role. He then went on a huge acquisition spree in the late '90s and again in the early part of the last decade and just kept going. He's a very quiet self-effacing individual, but with an incredible mind," Gilmour said.

"Hedderwick has an incredible eye for what sells. I can only think of one incident in the past 16 years, where they got it wrong - the Church's Chicken brand; it was a waste of time."

Source: Business Day

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