Spur CEO Pierre van Tonder rides into the sunset with praise
After what analysts described as a commendable eight years at the top of one of SAs ’ iconic restaurant chains, Pierre van Tonder will call it a day as CEO of Spur at year end.
Van Tonder’s decision to retire comes at a time when the restaurant industry is facing one of its biggest challenges after the government imposed lockdown measures that cut the sector off from its customers and left some restaurant chains fighting for survival.
The 61-year-old will formally step down at the end of the year after having overseen the expansion of Spur brands to add burger chain RocoMamas, Hussar Grill steak house and Greek restaurant Nikos to its portfolio of brands, which include flagship diner Spur Steak Ranches and pizza group Panarottis.
Mentored by Spur founder Allen Ambor, Van Tonder has been front and centre in the company’s strategic direction for more than two decades. He had been MD since 1996 before being promoted to the corner office in 2012.
Shares in Spur have hardly moved since Van Tonder took over, with the Covid-19 economic shock wiping off the almost 67% in additional value the company stock notched up from 2012 to the end of 2019. That performance highlighted
Van Tonder’s retirement comes as the restaurant industry faces one of its biggest challenges amid Covid-19 pandemic
an uninterrupted dividend payment and operational performance that took its pretax profit from R175m in 2012 to R243m. Much of the value, or just over 46%, was destroyed in 2020 due to lockdown measures that left the industry closed for more than two months. Restaurants are still banned from serving high-margin alcohol with meals, though the government eased restrictions at the beginning of June.
Keith McLachlan, an analyst at Alpha Asset Management, said Van Tonder should not be “penalised” for the weak share price performance as it was indicative of the SA economy during the pandemic.
“On a balance of diverging vectors, I would argue that Pierre did a good job under difficult circumstances,” said McLachlan.
“In particular, the RocoMamas acquisition performed exceedingly well, but most people forget that he also transitioned the group’s business model through a period of collapsing domestic disposable incomes and an exponential shift towards UberEats, Mr Delivery and home delivery apps that never existed years ago.”
Spur, which had to forgo franchise fees — its main source of income — from the middle of March until at least the beginning of May from 559 local stores out of 640, said it was in the hunt for Van Tonder’s replacement locally and abroad. The company has operations elsewhere in Africa as well as in the Middle East, after pulling out of developed countries such as the UK, where rival Famous Brands, the owner of Wimpy, has taken a R2.1bn writedown on an investment into Gourmet Burger Kitchen, a UK chain it bought into 2016.
Independent analyst Anthony Clark praised Spur’s expansion strategy as “cautious” as it did not involve saddling the group with debt but “buying small family-owned restaurants putting their money behind them.”