Famous Brands adds Italian flair to best-in-class brand portfolio with acquisition of Europa and Fego Caffé

Published: November 2012

Famous Brands (JSE share code: FBR) has acquired the franchise agreements, trademarks and intellectual property of the Europa and Fego Caffé brands from family-owned business, Antimo Foods. The Europa and Fego Caffé network currently comprises 31 and 27 restaurants respectively. The effective date of the transaction is 01 December 2012. The acquisition consideration is not material, and will be funded via short-term debt repayable over two years.

Famous Brands CEO, Kevin Hedderwick, says, “This acquisition of Europa and Fego Caffé fits well with our strategy to acquire best-in-class brands which fill gaps in the Group’s repertoire and serve to establish a presence in market segments where we currently have limited, or no representation. We have previously advised the market that a key priority for Famous Brands will be to enter the family casual dining sector, and are therefore delighted to have acquired the pedigreed Europa business, which enjoys a well-entrenched reputation in this space.”

“In addition,” says Hedderwick, “current trends clearly illustrate that the food service market is underpinned by four major growth sectors: breakfast, coffee, snacking and chicken, and both Europa and Fego Caffé extend our presence within those categories.”

He adds, “Further compelling reasons for this acquisition include the opportunity to grow these brands nationally – their current presence is fairly limited and confined to certain geographical regions, which offers significant upside to expand the footprint nationwide. Over the forthcoming five-year period, we envisage growing the network to a national footprint comprising of 50 restaurants each.”

“Europa and Fego Caffé are quality assets that do not require re-engineering or re-invention, and will not be a distraction to management. Through this transaction we can add value to our core restaurant offering, unlock future numerical growth, and extract obvious operational synergies, whilst at the same time very quickly integrating the business into our supply chain, thus building volumes in our manufacturing and logistics businesses ,” Hedderwick comments.

Salvatore Osato, Antimo Foods CEO, says, “We are excited that Famous Brands will become custodian of our South African brands – Europa and Fego Caffé. We have utmost faith that the business we have built over many years will now be taken to the next level, and in so doing, make our "brands famous". We are confident that our valued franchisees will benefit tremendously from the know-how, infrastructure and support systems associated with the undisputed leader in our industry. We see this as the start of a long term relationship with this fantastic Group.”