Network Breakfast Series Articles

Our panel brought together Stephen Walters (Galaxy Retail Solutions), Celdri de Wet (AldottSA Property Services) and Mohit Narotam (Lightstone Retail) to tackle one of franchising’s biggest challenges: choosing the right location.

Despite all the sophisticated technology now available, the conversation kept returning to one idea: data is incredibly powerful, but it doesn’t replace experience.

Our panel brought together Peter Myonga (19-restaurant McDonald’s operator), Karen Hill (Sorbet Men) and Mary Makhubela (multi-unit Cash Converters franchisee) to unpack what changes when a franchisee moves from one outlet to several.

Owning multiple stores doesn’t reduce the workload — it demands a completely different kind of leadership. The common thread across all three journeys: expansion is only possible once an owner learns to build systems, delegate fully and trust other people to lead.

Building More Than Barbershops: How Purpose Became Legends’ Greatest Competitive Advantage

When Sheldon Tatchell, founder and CEO of Legends Barbershop, addressed delegates at our breakfast, he didn’t begin by talking about franchising or strategy. Instead, he began with a story of failure — standing outside his first barbershop, having lost everything.

From that low point, Legends has grown into more than 80 stores across five countries, built on one guiding philosophy: if you focus on creating opportunities for people, commercial success will often follow.

Why the Best Franchise Brands Keep Reinventing Themselves

Former McDonald’s South Africa CEO Greg Solomon reflected on what separates businesses that keep growing from those that plateau.

Reinvention is not a response to failure — it’s a discipline practised long before decline sets in. The strongest leaders make themselves less indispensable, not more.

In a World of Noise, Influence Still Wins

Devlin Brown, Managing Partner of Eclipse Communications and a former journalist and editor, challenged conventional thinking about marketing with a refreshingly simple message.

Businesses do not build influence by communicating more. They build influence by communicating with greater purpose. In an age of endless channels, trusted relationships still outperform advertising alone.

Vilochanee Naidoo, Head of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS) Southern Africa, unpacked how a once purely operational function has become one of the most strategic roles in any organisation.

Businesses are no longer just asking how to buy cheaper — they’re asking how to build a supply chain that is resilient, efficient and a genuine competitive advantage. For franchise networks, that consistency is what protects brand standards across every location.

Few people in South African franchising have seen the industry from as many angles as Mimi Masala — two decades at McDonald’s, then a multi-unit franchisee herself, and today a franchise operations executive.

Understanding a business from a corporate perspective does not automatically prepare someone to succeed as a franchisee. The transition from employee to owner, she says, demands an entirely different mindset — and a willingness to work within systems rather than around them.

AI strategist Loren Phillips challenged delegates to move beyond the ChatGPT hype and ask a better question: how can AI create better franchise businesses, not just faster ones?

Artificial intelligence should strengthen human judgement, not replace it. It can tell us what’s likely to happen next — leaders still decide what future to create.

Why Expanding into Africa Requires More Than a Strong Brand

Akhona Qengqe, General Manager of KFC Africa, shared lessons from leading one of the continent’s largest and most geographically diverse restaurant networks.

Her message challenged a common assumption in franchising — that a successful model can simply be replicated from one country to the next. According to Qengqe, Africa is not one market.

Stephen Walters, founder and CEO of Galaxy Retail Solutions, challenged one of retail’s most deeply held assumptions: that good site selection simply means finding the busiest location.

Retailers need to stop thinking only about catchment areas and start thinking about customer missions — why people are really there, and whether the brand fits their purpose.

Operational Excellence Isn’t an Accident – It’s a System

Jo-Ann de Wet drew on her extensive experience within the McDonald’s system to explore what it really takes to deliver the same customer experience, day after day.

Great operations don’t happen by chance. Every kitchen, front-of-house process, and piece of technology has to be designed to work together, not in isolation.

The Great Escape from Average: Why Distinctive Brands Will Always Win

Advertising veteran Jacques Burger, CEO of The Up & Up Group, opened with an uncomfortable question: what if the greatest threat to your brand isn’t your competition, but your inability to stand out?

In an era of AI and endless data, distinctive thinking — not technology — is what will separate the brands people remember.

The Strongest Franchise Systems Prepare for the Unexpected

Richard Mukheibir, CEO of Cash Converters Southern Africa, shared lessons drawn from decades of leading one of the country’s largest franchise networks.

One theme ran through the whole morning: the businesses that survive uncertainty are those that prepare for it before it arrives. Every unnecessary dependency increases vulnerability — every alternative creates resilience.

Why Small Margins Demand Big Discipline

Tony Da Fonseca, CEO of the OBC Group, has grown a single 1987 store into a network of more than 90 outlets in a high-volume, low-margin environment.

“It’s all about the detail,” he told delegates. “Every cent counts.” Profitability is rarely one big decision — it’s the accumulation of hundreds of small ones.