Listed fast-foods concern, Simbisa Brands, is set to open its Bulawayo Chicken Inn drive-through facility at the end of this month, NewsDay has established. The facility is situated along Hillside Road near the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) exhibition centre.
BY MTHANDAZO NYONI
It was built at a cost of over $500 000 and was supposed to have been opened last month.
The opening was deferred to the end of this month, Simbisa managing director, Warren Meares said.
“The construction is almost complete and we are expecting to open the shop by end of January,” he said.
The drive-through business model, Meares said, is a convenient way of placing orders, paying and receiving food without disembarking from your vehicle.
Fast-foods rival, KFC, has drive-throughs at Belgravia and Simon Mazorodze branches in the capital.
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KFC also wants to build a drive-through outlet in Bulawayo.
Meares said the facility had vast parking space for customers as well as video-gaming facilities, among other services.
Simbisa was demerged from Innscor Africa and listed on the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in November.
It runs Chicken Inn, Pizza Inn, Bakers Inn, Fish Inn, Nandos, Steers and Creamy Inn.
The project, Meares continued, is part of the $3 million that was set aside by Innscor last year for investment through its expansion project, which is expected to create 150 new jobs.
Innscor has about 200 stores countywide in Bulawayo, Harare, Bindura, Mvuma, Gweru, Victoria Falls and Chiredzi, among other places.
Meanwhile, Meares said last year was very difficult for their business, but they managed to expand the number of shops in the country.
He said the company opened shops in Harare, Gweru, Bindura, Masvingo and Chiredzi.
The group is also targeting opening more shops in areas such as Hwange, Rusape, Kariba and Plumtree.
Going forward, Meares said, the group was poised for growth, as they would open more shops and drive-throughs across the country.
“We are also going to be introducing home delivery service known as dial-a-delivery,” he said.
The Simbisa MD said stations for that purpose would be opened in Harare, Bulawayo and Gweru.
The group operates its own fast-food outlets in Kenya, Zambia, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as franchised operations in Swaziland, Lesotho and Malawi.
These regional operations weighed in with $52 million in revenue in FY2014, while the Zimbabwean fast food business, where Innscor enjoys 82% market share, contributed $98 million.
