{"id":645373,"date":"2026-05-06T10:12:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=645373"},"modified":"2026-05-06T10:16:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:16:29","slug":"iconic-south-african-fast-food-chain-rolling-out-the-latest-software-to-keep-its-famous-39-minute-promise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/645373-iconic-south-african-fast-food-chain-rolling-out-the-latest-software-to-keep-its-famous-39-minute-promise.html","title":{"rendered":"Iconic South African fast-food chain rolling out the latest software to keep its famous 39-minute promise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South African fast-food eatery Scooters Pizza is embarking on a nationwide comeback, and this time the brand is employing the latest tech to stay competitive in the current market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scooters depends on advanced software to keep its famous 39-minute “scorching hot” pizza promise through live delivery tracking and fleet management, alongside a new Android app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juan Engelbrecht, franchisor of Scooters Pizza and other notable restaurant brands, including Bimbos, told MyBroadband that the technology would help revitalise its customer system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scooters Pizza opened its first stores in 2000, when the Gonzaga family launched the first three franchises in KwaZulu-Natal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2003, Scooters began opening stores in Johannesburg, and then outlets emerged in the Western Cape. By 2010, it was one of South Africa’s fastest-growing franchises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scooters Pizza had 167 stores nationwide by 2014, but would eventually see numerous outlet closures and a near-collapse in subsequent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Engelbrecht, Taste Holdings, the brand’s owner, bought the Domino’s Pizza licence from the American company and began systematically transforming Scooters outlets into Domino’s outlets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move was a mistake, as Domino’s proved not as popular with locals, leading to more closures. Scooters Pizza eventually faded away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When Domino’s SA couldn’t find a sustainable buyer, Taste liquidated the food business in March 2020, and around 55 Domino’s stores shut, with assets later auctioned,” Scooters Pizza’s website detailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I think it is a common fact today that the purchase of the master licence of Domino’s Pizza was the wrong move,” said Engelbrecht.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The owners also bought Starbucks, so they sat with two huge investments, and that probably took the focus off the core brands they had within the stable.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engelbrecht said there were very few major American fast-food brands that were successful in South Africa, notably KFC, McDonald’s, and Burger King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The list is long with failures, so Domino’s was not accepted in the South African market, particularly because it took over the successful brand of Scooters,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A slice of the latest tech<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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According to Engelbrecht, the Scooters comeback will be accompanied by several tech initiatives focused on efficiency and customer experience improvements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, he told us that outlets would be equipped with a point-of-sale system that uses the cloud, as well as a driver tracking system, “where we are able to see when drivers leave the store.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary focus was to ensure that franchises were able to meet Scooters’ 39-minute hot pizza promise, where if the pizza arrived later than 39 minutes after ordering, it would be free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This promise represents our commitment to providing the fastest pizza delivery service in South Africa, significantly exceeding the industry standard of 45\u201360 minutes,” the company said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Per Scooters, the 39-minute timer starts when a customer receives their order confirmation via SMS, email, or mobile app notification. Online payments will be fully refunded if an order is late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Late delivery compensation is automatically tracked through our order management system,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No additional documentation or proof is required from the customer, as our system maintains accurate delivery timestamps.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside the cloud-assisted order management system, Engelbrecht said Scooters was nearing a deal with South African fleet management software firm Skedadel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He called it a “management tool where you sit outside the stores, and you monitor where the drivers are and how long they are taking from leaving the store.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“You can actually just contact the driver on his cell phone and find out why he hasn’t made the delivery.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engelbrecht said he planned to open 30 new Scooters Pizza locations in 2026, with the latest outlets coming to Brakpan, Phalaborwa, Bryanston, Claremont, Tyger Valley and Paarl in the coming months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking on the delivery giants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Skedadel provides delivery management for companies such as KFC, Nando’s, and Pedros<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Engelbrecht explained that Scooters’ tech and delivery system enabled it to offer faster, more affordable delivery experiences than third-party providers like Mr D and Uber Eats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The goal is to be able to be one step ahead of the third-party logistics companies that currently rule the delivery space,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We want to compete with them and offer our clients something better than that, where the reaction time is better.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa’s food delivery ecosystem is dominated by Naspers’ Mr D (via Takealot) and American-owned Uber Eats. Together, the two hold 90% of the market<\/a> as of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of them, Mr D dominated 65% of the market, with Uber Eats taking 25% and seeing significant growth recently since launching in South Africa in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scooters Pizza is available on Mr D, but the company offers up to 30% off and faster delivery when customers order through its own Android app, according to Engelbrecht.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The challenge is, and I don’t think the public is always aware of this, that the cost of doing a home delivery through them is about 32% more expensive,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Using our in-house delivery system is a lot more economical than the third-party deliveries and obviously more reliable.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More images of Scooters Pizza<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scooters Pizza is making a comeback in a major way in South Africa, and this time, the fast-food icon is deploying tech to stay competitive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341213,"featured_media":645377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[25121,11165,105021,43168,1643,105019,105020,25127,35236],"class_list":["post-645373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-dominos-pizza","tag-e-commerce","tag-juan-engelbrecht","tag-mr-d-food","tag-naspers","tag-scooters-pizza","tag-skedadel","tag-taste-holdings","tag-uber-eats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645373"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":645617,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645373\/revisions\/645617"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}