Empowerment investment company Grand Parade Investments secured the Burger King master agreement for South Africa in late 2012. There are about 10 outlets in South Africa and the group is eyeing 100 stores within five years.
South Africa represents a huge opportunity with a growing middle class‚ rising out-of-home consumption‚ and a quick-service restaurant space that is rapidly expanding.
Burger King SA CEO Jaye Sinclair said the joint venture was "critical" to support its national supply chain roll-out.
The R50m facility‚ in Elsies River‚ Cape Town‚ was established through a joint venture with Excellent Meat‚ a 44-year-old family-run meat manufacturer and distributor.
About 700‚000 hamburger patties will be able to be produced a month. Burger King SA chairman Hassen Adams said the plant would be able to produce 3-million patties a month from next year.
Burger King's first store in South Africa rang up sales of R4.9m in just seven weeks. According to Grand Parade Investments CEO Alan Keet‚ trade in Burger King remains brisk and turnover is exceeding budget by 65%.
By the end of the year‚ more than 92% of Burger King SA's products will be locally produced.
In addition to this joint venture the company is in the midst of completing the installation of equipment‚ with RCL - formerly Rainbow Chicken - to provide it with the fast-growing demand for chicken burgers.
"We have already established a strong relationship with leading bakery East Balt and chip suppliers McCain SA‚" Sinclair said.
Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies said the venture was an example of how a manufacturing enterprise could relate to the expansion of service activities. "Service sectors are more solidly rooted and have much higher growth potential if they are related to the manufacturing company providing their goods‚" he said.
"Agro-processing plays a significant role in the South African economy in terms of job creation and sustainability."
Burger King will use SA as a platform to expand into fastgrowing African nations.
Its local licence deal includes countries such as Namibia‚ Botswana‚ Zambia‚ Zimbabwe‚ Mozambique and Mauritius.
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