Seat at the table — restaurant lobby group teams up with Fedhasa to drive sector interests

23 Jul 2024

The Restaurant Collective and the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa say SA’s sit-down restaurant industry is too fragmented to make a meaningful difference. They believe their new partnership will help coordinate representation.

A cornerstone of South Africa’s economy and a major employer, the restaurant industry has virtually endured the 10 plagues of Egypt: economic instability, job-killing pandemic restrictions during Covid-19, a shortage of workers, El Niño, restaurant closures, bird flu, power cuts, water shortages, food inflation, rising crime. The list goes on.

Nedbank Commercial Banking reports that the economic fallout from Covid led to the closure of roughly 3,000 businesses, including many restaurants.

It’s a vast industry, comprising about 85,000 restaurants — many of which are within the 850 franchise systems in the fast food and restaurant sector — but it lacks coordinated support. Now, a new collaboration between the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa (Fedhasa) and The Restaurant Collective aims to put things right.

Set up in May 2020 by Grace Harding from Ocean Basket and Natasha Sideris from the Tasha’s Group, The Restaurant Collective (TRC) was initially aimed at alleviating pressure on the industry caused by the pandemic.

Now, TRC — which also has the backing of Nando’s, Famous Brands, Marble Restaurant, Doppio Zero, the Spur Group as well as publishers Food24 and EatOut — could potentially be in a stronger position to unify and empower the sit-down restaurant sector’s thousands of entrepreneurs and professionals, with the backing of hospitality industry giant Fedhasa.

Harding is the chair of TRC. She says that when they started the collective, they were “panicking about the landlords”.

“We (Sideris and I) were just restaurant girls. We didn’t know anything about running an association, and before we knew it, we were lobbying for the industry.

‘Natural transition’

“We started collaborating with the Tourism Business Council and then Fedhasa, which has so much credibility, experience, infrastructure and partnerships built up over 75 years. We know restaurants really well, so it was a natural transition.”

The partnership says it will aim to create a better business environment for local restaurants by promising to tackle issues such as regulatory red tape, employment issues and taxation.

The collaboration also promises to offer access to valuable resources, support services and networking opportunities to foster industry growth and knowledge sharing.

Rosemary Anderson, chairperson of Fedhasa, says they had “courted” TRC for a while.

“When it comes to negotiating with the government, the bigger you are, the more clout you have and the greater your voice. We need the government to help create an environment where we can do what we do best, and that’s to add to the economy.”

TRC is largely funded by its biggest groups but is yet to finalise a fee structure for small restaurants, which Harding says will be minimal, and still needs to get suppliers onboard. What it needs from suppliers is in-kind support rather than payment.

“So, for example, a supplier who specialises in drinks could run workshops and give information to the trade. We want to educate and upskill the workforce.”

Anderson adds that with the right amendments to South Africa’s visa regulations, millions of unskilled people could be absorbed into the hospitality sector.

‘Millions of new jobs’

“You don’t need any special skills. You can get most of it in on-the-job training. If we could just get our visa system changed, where we make it easy for the main tourism source markets of China and India to visit South Africa, we could create millions of new jobs.”

With more tourists in the country, new hotels and restaurants will need to be built, which will have a huge spin-off.

“Hospitality — food and accommodation — could be the catalyst for job growth in South Africa, if all the government departments talk to each other.”

Hospitality needs its moment in the sun, says Harding. “It’s exciting because we can change the industry.”

The Restaurant Association of South Africa declined to comment publicly, although Harding says they had tried to reach out previously, but those efforts proved unsuccessful. BM

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Business Maverick

‘Natural transition’

‘Millions of new jobs’