London Pie Franchise

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Jweb_@@

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Anyone have any experience running or owning 1 of these?
Is it the kind of business that can run itself? I'm currently employed, but I'm considering buying 2 or 3 existing small businesses.
 
Hi there

My dad ran one for a few years - he broke even at best.You need to be in the perfect prime spot and also not close to any other take aways imho.We were in a very well known outdoor place in randburg but we we flanked by many other take aways and broke even at best each month.You need 2 employee's one to bake and one to man the cashier but i think that one COMPETANT person is enough to run the business.Also you may want to look into selling some good ice cream.We used to sell those little ball ice cream and that sold very well, but im not sure if they exist anymore.

Here is the pic of the ice cream.View attachment 66275
 
Jweb_@@ said:
Anyone have any experience running or owning 1 of these?
Is it the kind of business that can run itself? I'm currently employed, but I'm considering buying 2 or 3 existing small businesses.
Click to expand...

Also thought of this a few years ago , but i seen a few stores close down and i suppose this is mainly due to their price on pies , i think they charge like R16 / R17 now if i'm not mistaken whereas you can get the same pie for about R10 sometimes cheaper on special at garages / pnp / spar etc.

just remember these are normal Piemans pies sold in all these places
 
When London Pie first opened (about twenty years ago) their main attraction was that they were significantly cheaper than their opposition. No more :(
 
ElementZero said:
Also thought of this a few years ago , but i seen a few stores close down and i suppose this is mainly due to their price on pies , i think they charge like R16 / R17 now if i'm not mistaken whereas you can get the same pie for about R10 sometimes cheaper on special at garages / pnp / spar etc.

just remember these are normal Piemans pies sold in all these places
Click to expand...

This ... London Pie was very expensive ... and like you said ... basically the same pies you can pie for cheaper @ PnP. For the same price the Foodlovers market sells massive home made pies. They are very yummy and massive. I sometimes buy it together with some of their potato salad.
 
rrh said:
When London Pie first opened (about twenty years ago) their main attraction was that they were significantly cheaper than their opposition. No more :(
Click to expand...

Also if I remember correctly, not only cheaper but they were fresh, compared to other store which only heated frozen pies..

now garages have those pie ovens so yeah..
 
The economy is tight right now and I am seeing a lot of fast food places close down around where I live. There was a pizza place and a fish n chips franchise that both closed down in the past 6 months that I used to frequent as well as a few other places that I did not go to. Unless you are getting into a new mall or something with good foot traffic I don't think its worth it right now.
 
Jweb_@@ said:
Thanks for the feedback guys.
Click to expand...

Tough times we in and you can get pies anywhere nowadays and piemans supplies London Pie.
What you need to open is a fried wings place but have like 50 sauces to choose from.
 
Demand for horse meat has been on the increase recently. And now regulators are a bit more strict as well. This has a direct influence on the cost of making pies :D
 
Cius said:
The economy is tight right now and I am seeing a lot of fast food places close down around where I live. There was a pizza place and a fish n chips franchise that both closed down in the past 6 months that I used to frequent as well as a few other places that I did not go to. Unless you are getting into a new mall or something with good foot traffic I don't think its worth it right now.
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The Finsh 'N Chip shop on Malibongwe closed down last month - was very surprised by that!

Definitely doesn't look like the right time to get into this.
 
In these economic times people are looking for value for money.
Price your fast food right and people will buy it.

As an example I see my local Chinese fast food and Roman's Pizza still doing good business.
Chinese : R35 for a huge helping of food (almost enough for two people)
Romans : R85 for two, large, thick base, margheritas.

Once you start hitting the R50+ mark for a single helping for an adult you're on the losing side IMO.
I can't remember the last time I was at a restaurant - just can't afford R250+ for a basic meal for two any more.
 
Well, that was what surprised me. The Fish n Chips place at the Boskruin center was decent quality and amazing value for money. For two adults and 2 toddlers we would spend about R55 for all of us to eat our fill. Pizza Mondo on Beyers Naude was also decent value for money pizza and they closed. I also noticed that the Burger Perfect which is expensive moved out of their larger premises at Boskruin and took over the fish and chips store to save rent I am assuming. They are all scaling back.
 
The one that was in Tygervalley sold re-branded Pieman's pies. Or at least it looked that way, the packaging etc.
 
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