Spur founder retires

Allen Ambor helped create restaurant format that allows parents to relax and children to play

The retirement of Spur restaurant chain’s founder and executive chair, Allen Ambor, on Thursday sees the departure of one of the pioneers of family dining in SA.

The 77-year-old Ambor, who established the first Spur restaurant in Newlands, Cape Town, in 1967, played a big part in creating a restaurant format that allowed parents to relax while their children entertained themselves. Under him, Spur came up with novel features like a play area and an American Western style décor, which amused and attracted children.

Spur Group CEO Pierre van Tonder said that while there were a handful of steak houses around at the time he started out, Ambor had the great vision of turning them into a place where people could enjoy family time.

Besides coming up with the family restaurant concept, Ambor was a leading creative force in the group. He played an instrumental role in making “cheddamelt”, “Salad Valley”, “Chico the Clown” and “Hunga Buster” household phrases.

The group referred to him as its “creative custodian”, and he was responsible for all TV, radio and print advertisements.

From the single restaurant Ambor opened 52 years ago, the group has grown into a franchising network that now operates over 600 outlets in 19 countries and collectively employs over 15,000 people.

Van Tonder said Ambor will not play a role in the group after his retirement.

“The man deserves a rest. He’s 77 years old.”

Independent director Mike Bosman, the former CEO and later the chair of One Digital Media, replaced Ambor as a nonexecutive chair.

Bosman is also a nonexecutive director of AVI and MTN SA and chairs Vinimark Trading and Twee Jonge Gezellen.

To comply with the King governance codes, Bosman resigned as a member of Spur’s audit committee.

His spot on this committee was taken up by advertising expert Muzi Kuzwayo.

Ambor’s departure comes as Spur battles through a difficult economy, with a rise in the VAT rate, higher fuel prices and below-inflation increases putting consumer spending under pressure.

This could be seen in Spur increasing revenue 5.3% to R370.2m but profit dropping 10% to R87.7m for the half-year to end-December. Net profit for the period was down 7.9% to R88.7m.

Van Tonder said the group was responding to the difficult economy by focusing on increasing the profitability of its franchise stores. This has seen it get rid of less profitable specials like its two for one burger deals.

It also provided its franchise stores with their own equipment, which enabled them to make their own products rather than source more expensive products from a supplier.

Van Tonder said that these efforts were paying off as its franchise stores were now twice as profitable as they were two years ago.