Building a brand on good “old fashioned” home comforts

BY Promotional Feature | Featured Opportunities, Promotional Feature | October 20, 2012 at 09:27

Following the overwhelming success of “Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips, South Africa’s favourite taste of home cooking has expanded to encompass a greater range of Traditional Brands.

Slow roasting, long basting, patient perfection, are only a few words to describe Chingos Chicken, the newest chicken concept for all food lovers alike.

Nicolas De Sousa is part of the franchise that has brought quality, value and nostalgia to the South African food market for more than a decade. With the launch of Chingos Chicken, its new franchise brand, the family run business created an umbrella under which to nestle its ever-expanding portfolio. The aim of Traditional Brands is to “stimulate the corporate representation and exposure of “Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips, to emulate and exploit its success and developments to maximise investor opportunity,” explains De Sousa.

It goes without saying that home-cooked quality has, and always will remain the top priority for Traditional Brands; after all it’s top quality that led to such great success in the first place.

However, the De Sousa family also recognise the importance of development and are dedicated to
embedding this ethos within their business now and in the future.

Investing in development

Traditional Brands’ business model centres on consistency and development, but also recognises that systems and structures will vary internally from brand to brand. “Old Fashioned” Fish and Chips
and Chingos Chicken represent the company’s overarching ethos but have their own business plans depending on location and specific customer demands.

“Not only does Traditional Brands place value on the services we provide in these entities but we ensure consistency in the actions taken to get them done,” says De Sousa. “However, you can’t expect to develop the need of a product without the understanding of the country’s demand for further development. South Africa has always required the emotional understanding of the people and not just a sympathetic outlook on the struggles or challenges we have as a developing economy.”

“We achieve this through our Targeted Service Delivery, meaning we react to the demands of our customers for each brand to ensure it feels personalised and appealing. We are passionate about the products we sell and take the time to get it right for every brand under Traditional Brands aegis,” he says.

Experience the tradition of "Old Fashioned" Fish and Chips where your senses will be entertained with the unforgettable memory of succulent fish, mouth watering sausages and delicious fresh cut potato chips.

Focusing on the customer

Customer service is developing every day, and companies need to embrace the change. It is no longer acceptable to talk to your customers, you need to engage with them to achieve the best return and this is exactly what De Sousa and his family are doing to develop Traditional Brands.

The firm has implemented a support network for its customers, which allows them to provide feedback not just to the store manager, but also to the head office. “The consumer of today requires additional support,” concedes De Sousa. “People want to have their say when it comes to products, services and even ideas for development. We are trying to create a community based on trust and support from the brand to our customers.”

As part of its focus on customer satisfaction, Traditional Brands’ head office regularly completes local and national surveys on the consumer, the service provided and what they want or need in their stores.

Ambitious expansion plans

By February 2013 Traditional Brands plans to have another 50 stores opened across Southern Africa and further to this, plans to expand across the continent and also into Asia and Europe long term.

De Sousa is confident that Traditional Brands can develop to become one of the world’s most recognised food retailers. “The international expansion plan is on the go and moving swiftly into predicted markets as well as the unpredicted,” says De Sousa. “We have outlets opening within Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique so we are certainly in line with our targets for 2012, what was not expected, however, was the greater demand from areas never considered such as China, India and the Middle East. Of course the logistical planning around our borders is always a lot easier than across the globe, but we will get there, with the right planning and research we can always make it work.”

“With this in mind, we will never force our product onto the consumer but rather amend the product to work for the consumer. And that takes time considering you never want to alter your core service or product in place of brand recognition. This level of commitment and planning is the key to our success and will be for years to come.”

“Traditional Brands has a third and fourth brand on the cards for launch within the next six months. But also great expansion plans for our community focused strategies throughout Africa and possibly Asia. The third new brand will incorporate food but the fourth will take the brand into a new facet of business entirely,” says De Sousa. “We see ourselves as the next staple take away in every continent within the next 10 years from the food chain’s that we own but when entering unknown areas of new business, we would like to take on the role as the ‘new kids on the block’ and learn while setting the up and coming trends that we have to offer. For us, innovation has and always will lead our business and inspire success.”