Fast-food boss moves into a new queue
Hedderwick turned a small Steers into 800-pound gorilla
NEW MENU: Kevin Hedderwick will take a different role in the Famous Brands group BEFORE his son’s coming-ofage party, Kevin Hedderwick gathered five of the scion’s closest friends and asked them to tell him about his son.
“It probably wasn’t a good idea because they told me all the bad things. I thought he was an angel, but that shows how quickly time goes by.”
For the first time in 17 years, since joining what was then called the Steers group, Hedderwick, Famous Brands’ outgoing chief executive, will soon have more time to catch up with his family.
He has been at the helm of what industry pundits like to describe as an “800-pound gorilla” — an unchallenged player in the market that has reported continuous growth for the past 15 years.
Among the many brands the company owns are Wimpy, Mugg & Bean, Europa, tashas and Debonairs.
“It’s consumed my life, but I’ve also never had as much fun and I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved. It’s been a rollercoaster at times,” Hedderwick said. For him, “value is the new black”.
“What we say, time and time again, is that if you position yourself properly, the consumer will find you.”
With a trading footprint of more than 2 614 restaurants across 20 countries, the group has cemented its position in the fast-food market.
The group recently acquired three businesses, buying 51% majority stakes in Italian-style restaurant Lupa Osteria, Salsa Mexican Grill, and French fries supplier Lamberts Bay Foods from Oceana.
Anthony Clark, an analyst at financial services group Vunani, said the real growth story of the group was through the vertical integration of its logistics and manufacturing businesses.
“When Famous Brands moved into logistics and supply chain, [Hedderwick] was way ahead of his time. But he was WAIT AND SEE: A Wimpy restaurant. The group’s new CEO will have his own vision, but might not change much only replicating what the international companies have been doing for years.
“When you start going into the low-hanging fruit, where you can easily manufacture products yourself and trap and capture market share in-house, that’s the real growth of Famous Brands.”
Hedderwick has made many people, including himself and the Halamandaris family and shareholders, wealthy.
Famous Brands’ stock, in its heyday when Hedderwick joined the company, was worth R85-million. Today it is valued at about R12-billion.
“What we’ve done over the years is that we’ve built a phenomenal leadership team,” said Hedderwick. “Famous Brands has always been around a culture of winning.”
But with the fast-food industry being dubbed the next tobacco industry, which needs regulatory intervention, the group may have to implement new strategies.
Hedderwick said: “Being the food industry, we’ve got to make sure that we behave responsibly. So to that extent we are all the time re-engineering menus, so every one of our brands will in some shape or form provide the consumer with a healthy option, or a healthy alternative, if they want it.”
But he added: “Regulation has never solved anything; it all just goes underground. Rather educate than regulate.”
Hedderwick will continue at Famous Brands as the group’s strategic adviser. This will allow him to continue with the group’s aggressive acquisition trail “so that the growth agenda doesn’t slip off the radar screen”.
He will also mentor his successor, Darren Hele, who will try to put his own imprint on the business through greater African and offshore expansion.
But, as Clark observes, it may take investors in the market a while to ascertain what Hele will do with the business.
Clark said Hedderwick was leaving a legacy that would be difficult for a new chief executive to try to change.
“Why would you want to change near perfection?” asked Clark.