Franchising is alive and well in South Africa. With over 550 franchised brands and close to 30,000 franchised outlets in SA, it is a very developed marketing. Although buying a franchise in South Africa is not an easy way to owning your own business, in some cases it is a lot easier than starting from scratch.
Simply Asia Thai Food & Noodle Bar is well-known success story within the South African franchising industry. Five years after his arrive in SA, Thai national Chai Lekcharoensuk walked into a Thai restaurant in Johannesburg to sample the local take on Thai cuisine. Disappointed with the meal, which hardly tasted like real Thai food, he became inspired to introduce South Africa to a more upmarket take on Thai dining, opening the first Wang Thai Royal Thai Cuisine restaurant on Cape Town’s Foreshore in 1993.
Wang Thai’s combination of sophisticated elegance, royal Thai chefs and delicate spicy food was adored by locals and tourists alike, which lead Chai to further develop the Wang Thai restaurant group in the Cape Peninsula and at a later stage in Johannesburg and Pretoria as well.
Having established an enviable reputation in the fine dining sector of the restaurant market, Chai saw the opportunity to open a second, more mainstream Thai restaurant chain which would combine the authenticity and flavour of Wang Thai with the convenience and simplicity of a European noodle bar.
Ten years later with his vision still in mind, Chai opened the first Simply Asia Thai Food & Noodle Bar – a fresh, tasty and affordable alternative for diners looking to broaden their horizons with more exotic and authentic cuisine.
And so Simply Asia was born.
To prove that the concept worked and was not simply a passing fad, 12 company-owned Simply Asia stores were opened in Cape Town and Gauteng between 2003 and 2006. The success of the initiative led to all of these stores being converted to franchises. Currently there are over 40 stores situated in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, with 85% of the stores being franchised.
