Famous Brands goes saucy in a big way to take up the slack

The company said it would soon tap into new markets by selling its new brand of sauces, salad dressings and burger patties directly to the catering and hospitality sector.

Hedderwick said: "Because we have spare capacity at our plants, this presents an opportunity to what we call forward-integrate our business into retail and the general catering and hospitality sectors, which is working well."

The Flav-O-Full brand would be in the market next month. It would be sold to any establishment that did not compete directly with Famous Brands.

The products would also be available through Bidvest food services.

"The catering sector is huge and we would like to believe that taking a range of products out there, with Famous Brands as a manufacturer, gives those products some pedigree.

This is new to us, but the sector is big and it is going through significant growth, which we want to be part of because we have the spare capacity to do so," said Hedderwick.

The firm, which owns, among others, Steers, Debonairs and Wimpy, has an in-house manufacturing unit which has its main plant in Midrand and satellite plants in other different areas.

This unit, which is responsible for sauces, spices, ice-cream, fruit juice, meat processing and a bakery, was started to ensure that products offerings at all the Famous Brands' outlets were of similar quality.

The firm's manufacturing and logistics division generated turnover of R756 million in the year to February, which was a 17 percent increase compared to the previous year.

The share price shed 2.58 percent to R15.10, while the leisure and hotel sector lost 1.18 percent.