Simbisa to sink US$10m in retail outlets expansion

Michael Tome and Sandra Maziwisa

Fast food restaurant operator Simbisa Group intends to invest as much as US$10 million in its retail outlets expansion across the country as it seeks to consolidate its market share in the fast-food segment, chief executive Warren Meares has said.

Simbisa, which listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange on November 2015, will add at least 40 outlets in the next six months, 15 of them in Harare, Mr Meares said during the official opening of an outlet housing the company’s popular restaurant chains including Pizza Inn and Chicken Inn and Nandos in the Breaside suburb of Harare.

“We see Zimbabwe as a worthy investment destination, so we are on a serious expansion drive,” Mr Meares said in a sideline interview during the launch event. The group will also target outlets along main highways particularly Bulawayo, Mutare, and Masvingo roads.

Meanwhile Simbisa marketing manager Ms Tanya Thomas said the company was looking at broadening its promotions as an incentive to grow its customer base.

“We will continue to open more complexes as we go and we will be offering more household promos that people have grown to love, which consist of Munchy Monday from Chicken Inn, Terrific Tuesday from Pizza Inn and Bread Bonanza from Bakers Inn,” Mrs Thomas. During the event, 3000 people were treated to free meals.

“The reason why we are giving free meals is that we want to say think to the people of Zimbabwe for the continued support they have been giving us over the years,” she said

Simbisa group runs fast-food brands such as Chicken Inn, Pizza Inn, Creamy Inn, Baker’s Inn, Fish Inn, Galito’s Africa, Nando’s, Steers, and Vida E Caffe and delivery service, Dial-a-Delivery. Besides Zimbabwe, it also has operations across Sub-Saharan Africa, with a total of 145 branches in Kenya, Zambia, Ghana, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The group operated as a business unit of Zimbabwe’s largest company by revenue, Innscor Africa, before it was unbundled and listed separately on the ZSE in 2015.