The Board of Trustco Group Holdings has approved the appointment of Janene van Den Heever as an Independent Non-executive Director of the company with effect from 1 November 2021. 

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Namibia has just received an all-time record high fuel price hike – an increase that will really affect the consumers’ pockets. With this increase in the fuel price, it is a good time to look at where you are spending and if there are ways that you can manage your money and free up some cash. 

Alna Booysen, FNB Premium and Consumer Head, says there are a few steps that one can take to make sure that they are making their dollars work for them over this time:

1)     Track your spend - This will be a great way to see where your spending is going and also highlight any unconscious spending that may be happening; it will also highlight your major spend categories.  You can do this either by using a pen and paper or a spending tracker app.

2)     Now check your budget - Now that you have an idea of where your money is going, the next step is to put your budget together.  This is where you need to look at what is important to you and check if your spending is aligned to the things that are important to you. On this point, you can go through the following 4-step process :

  • Step 1 - Think, dream and reflect – what does your financial lifestyle look like in 5, 10, 15 years? Make a list of everything that is important to you. This could be your children’s education, your retirement or being debt free.
  • Step 2 - The next step is to prioritise what is important to you. Look at the list that you made in the first step and choose the top three most important ones to you.
  • Step 3 – this is the difficult one where you look at where your spending is going and if that aligns to what is important to you. For example, if being debt-free is important to you but you are spending lots of money on takeaways, maybe you can reduce the amount that you are spending on takeaways each month and rather use this money to pay off your debt quicker. Once you have made that decision, action it! Make sure that you set up a scheduled transfer to pay off your debt as soon as possible. This will reduce the temptation to spend as much on the items that you have traded off on.
  • Step 4 - The last step is to review this on a regular basis. Do the 4-step process on a regular process to ensure that your spending is aligned to what is important to you.

3)     Loyalty programmes - Use your loyalty programmes to help you free up the cash that you may need. For example, use your FNB Rewards to pay for cosmetic products as well as fuel where you can get up to 15% cash back on your fuel spend. With the cash that has not been used to pay for these items, use that to start saving for an emergency.

4)     Festive season - The festive season is also around the corner, so if you are travelling during this time, start saving for the extra fuel costs that may be associated with travelling over this period. Also be aware that some financial institutions will run monthly debit orders a bit earlier, which will help with cash flow in January and keep your credit score intact.

5)     More tips to save on fuel costs

  • Plan your shopping so that you don’t need to pop to the shops on a regular basis. It will also save you money from an unconscious spend point of view.
  • Even better, for safety and convenience try to shop online so that you will only buy the items that you need and will also save on fuel costs.
  • If you travelling to the office on a regular basis, try to see if there is a way that you can carpool to save on fuel costs.
  • Make sure that your car is regularly serviced and that the tyres are properly inflated.
  • Stick to the speed limit and avoid aggressive acceleration.

“Being aware of where your money is going and what you are spending it on is the first step in setting yourself up for financial resilience. Using a tool like the FNB App will help you keep to your financial goals,” advises Booysen.

South African start-up carrier BDS Airways has submitted a N$3.2 billion offer to buy Air Namibia, which is currently being liquidated.

Twelve young jewellery designers – three each from Botswana, Canada, Namibia and South Africa – won awards during this year's Shining Light Awards, which is hosted by diamond miner De Beers and honours the next generation of jewellery designers.

The philosophy at the Environmental Investment Fund of Namibia is straightforward. It aims to endorse activities and projects that protect and maintain the natural and environmental resources of the country to benefit all Namibians. Further, the goal is to empower and enhance community initiatives by giving community members complete ownership of their projects.

The German Federal Government has lifted all entry restrictions for residents of Namibia with effect from Tuesday, November 2nd, 2021.

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The Agribank Board has appointed Emmanuel Masule, the bank’s Executive Manager Credit to the position of Acting CEO until Dr Raphael Karuaihe takes up the role following his appointment as substantive CEO with effect from the 10th of January 2022.

The much-anticipated Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) Initial Public Offering (IPO) closed on Monday.

The Ministry of Agriculture has announced the immediate suspension of imports and in-transit movement of live poultry, birds and poultry products from Germany and the Netherlands following the outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.

The founders of Food Lover's Market Group, Brian and Mike Coppin have done extremely well and are making big moves in "silence".

The business was founded in 1993 as Fruit & Veg City and has since rebranded into Food Lover's Market Group, with an estimated annual turnover of +- R12 billion.

Food Lover's Market is one of the last few independent food retailers of scale on the African continent.

It has added categories such as bakery grocery, butchery and deli foods to complement its market leading position in fresh produce.

The Food Lover's Group now includes several retail brands like Seattle Coffee, Food Lover's Eateries, two liquor store brands and FVC International.

Food Lover’s Market biggest bet was when they partnered and subsequently acquired a 51% stake in Seattle Coffee Company from Pete Howie and Barry Parker in 2015.

Seattle Coffee Company has gain popularity over the years

Seattle Coffee Company

Seattle Coffee Company was formed the same year (1993) as Food Lover's Market in London, UK by husband and wife, Alley and Scott Svenson.

In 1996, Barry Parker and Peter Howie brought Seattle Coffee Company to Cape Town.

In 1998, Starbucks bought out Seattle UK and converted all 65 Seattle stores into Starbucks.

Starbucks acquired Seattle UK by exchange ~1.8 million Starbucks shares for 100% of Seattle in a deal worth ~$83 million.

When Peter Howie and Barry Parker brought Seattle Coffee Company to Cape Town in 1996, they also acquired the Southern Africa naming rights.

So, when Starbucks bought out Alley and Scott Svenson in 1998, the Cape Town store owned by Peter and Barry was the only Seattle left.

Enter Taste Holdings and Starbucks

Taste Holdings bought the South African master licence agreement for Starbucks for R226m in 2015 for 25 years and caught serious hands.

Taste was required to pay yearly royalties to Starbucks US of R2.5m.

Taste planned on establishing 12 to 15 outlets within first 24 months.

Capital expenditure and pre-opening expenses for the first 12 to 15 stores were estimated at R108m.

Market opportunity was estimated at 150-200 outlets, at an estimated capital expenditure per store of R3m-R10m.

We all know they never got to that 150-200 outlets.

Taste Holdings later disposed of 13 Starbucks stores for a mere lousy R7m, which was ~R538k a store as well as the franchise master to Rand Capital Coffee.

The estimated cost of opening a Starbucks store in South Africa was around R3m-R10m at the time.

Back to Food Lover's Market Group

Food Lover's Market FreshStop convenience stores located in Caltex stations is a hit as well.

There are +-330 FreshStop at Caltex outlets in South Africa which are open 24 hours.

The early bird catches the worm

In 2016, Actis, through its private equity arm invested R760 million for a minority stake in Food Lover’s Market.

Food Lover's Market used the proceeds to boost its local growth potential.

Actis has positioned itself well here.

Actis said that they are backing the founders.

Actis private equity portfolio focuses on consumer, financial services and healthcare.

It has ~$15bn funds under management and has raised US$24bn since inception.

Actis PE has invested US$5.7bn in 150 transactions and exited 100.

In 2016 when Actis invested R760m, FLM had;

  • ~120 Food Lover's Market stores in 11 countries,
  • 200 FreshStop convenience stores in Caltex stations.

2021;

  • 130 Food Lover's Market stores in 22 countries, including 5 in Namibia.
  • 330 FreshStop stores
  • 14 eateries.
  • 240 Seattle Coffee.
  • 46 Market Liquors outlets.

Should Food Lover's Market go public one day, Actis and the founders (Mike and Brian Coppin) will be rewarded handsomely.

The owners of Food Lover's Market Group said that for year ended 28 Feb 2021, Food Lover's Market turnover, excluding Seattle and FreshStop was R11bn-R12bn.

With the R760m investment from Actis and the strength of Food Lover's Market balance sheet, the group has the following expansions in the pipeline;

1) Continue opening 20 to 30 FreshStop convenience stores a year

2) Open 2-3 Food Lover's Market stores a year + refurb 5-6 stores.

Food Lover’s Market franchise requirements

Food Lover’s Market offers opportunities to own a store via a franchise agreement:

  • Average setup cost is R8m-12m, with an owner contribution of 50%.
  • Franchise/Royalty fee is 2% and marketing contribution is 0.5%of turnover.
  • Initial franchise agreement term is set at 10 years.

*By Maano Madima

 

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