What’s the deal with franchises in town? Are they too big and pricey for Grahamstown? Or are we just too small for them?
What’s the deal with franchises in town? Are they too big and pricey for Grahamstown? Or are we just too small for them?
For almost a year a billboard on African Street asked residents if they’d like to open up an Ocean Basket restaurant in Grahamstown.
The successful national seafood chain didn’t seem to get any bites however, and now the billboard has disappeared.
Despite the somewhat limited number of franchises in town, they still offer healthy competition for local businesses. “It’s not that franchises cannot do well here in Grahamstown, in fact that do very well,” said Grahamstown Woolworths store manager Elmarie Vos.
“It’s the local businesses that don’t like having franchises as competition.”
Vos believes chains like Woolworths are known to have higher standards of conduct and “franchises also make competition because they are usually associated with a group of familiar faces which people really like”.
This may be true, but after two years Ocean Basket still hasn’t secured a franchisee in Grahamstown.
An Ocean Basket spokesperson suggested this could be because people from smaller towns may not be brand conscious enough to be viable options.
Local restaurant owners see things quite differently, though. “Any competitive is good competition,” according to Red Café owner Louise Boy.
“If a business is happy about their product then they should not be fearful of bigger, more well-known businesses.”
One restaurateur who has past experience with owning a franchise said she doesn’t worry about competing with large brands now that she has her own business as everyone has to work to be successful.
“In the end, people here have a huge choice and they can choose whatever they want and this creates more competition,” said Stella Swanepoel, owner of Cafe Delizzia.
Swanepoel transformed her premises on High Street from the franchised Dulcé Café to Delizzia over a year ago.
She admits the change was initially “bad for business”, but owning a franchise taught her important tricks of the trade for her own business.
But there’s one big name on everybody’s lips that still manages to evade people’s bellies.
For years students and fast-food lovers have speculated about the absence of a McDonald’s in town, with the nearest branches being in Port Elizabeth East London.
Not giving any concrete information about adding that big yellow 'M' to the City of Saints’s skyline, Sechaba Motsieloa, corporate affairs director of McDonald’s South Africa said, “McDonald’s has a national footprint, with restaurants in all nine provinces of South Africa. We will continue to explore all opportunities to be closer to our customers, as they arise”.
