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STYLE
AND SUBSTANCE
Belinda
Forbes and Kathy Sadie, new franchisees at News Café
Melville, have proved that good business principles are universal.
Susan Reynard investigates how
the fairer sex conducts business.
 Much
is being made of the fact that the two newest News Café
franchisees are women, a first for this chain of restaurant-cum-cocktail-bars.
On closer inspection, however, one finds that the feminine
touch is only one of their strong points.
Both
Belinda Forbes and Kathy Sadie are seasoned and successful
business people, who rank management and organisational skills
and financial acumen as high as any of their male counterparts.
They have recently brought their flair for business to the
new Melville News Café.
Having
come from a trans-African refrigerated transport business,
where Forbes was partner and Sadie the accountant, they know
that business is tough and that generally there is little
room in the working day to display one's softer side.
Each
News Café has its own particular theme within the standard
décor, and in Melville the late Princess Diana is given
pride of place. She features in photographs and framed newspaper
front pages, a silent reminder of the impact strong women
have on the world.
The
décor in the Melville outlet is the latest for News
Café, featuring stainless steel, copper, wood and face-brick
details. These have been combined to create a retro feel.
A
unique feature is the Blue Room in the centre of the back
wall. This is a storeroom with large glass panels and blue
neon lighting providing an eye-catching setting for the alcoholic
beverages on offer. It does necessitate purchasing stock by
the case to fill the display effectively but turnover is high
enough to have made this essential anyway.
Dropped
display units above the bar counter are offered to suppliers
for promotions on a stock-exchange basis.
Music
and lighting play an important part in adjusting the restaurant's
atmosphere. During the day, contemporary yet easy listening
music encourages relaxation. When the pace picks up in the
late evening and the cocktails are flowing, the sound is pumped
up to heighten the buzz. The music play-list consists of a
wide range of CD's submitted by franchisees for approval from
the franchisor.
Making
a success of a seven-days-a-week, 18-hour day business like
News Café requires hard work and focus. Their motto:
"Help yourself. Don't rely on anyone. Only you can do
it."
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Drawing
the line
Owners Belinda Forbes and Kathy Sadie have set
up a system of strict back of house controls.
A prominently displayed list of fines above the
point-of-sale system reminds kitchen and waiting
staff of the misdemeanours that will not be accepted.
For example, chewing gum or dirty ashtrays incur
a R10 fine, being late for duty R30, and the most
severe fine for a no-show for a shift being "Bye-bye".
Staff
are expected to adhere to company rules without
nagging. If they forget, they pay a fine. The
money goes into a big glass jar, which is used
for a staff party at the end of the year.
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At
a glance
Opened - 6 February 2002
Size - 400m2
Seats - 240
Set up cost - over R2-million
Franchise fee - 5%
Marketing fee - 3%
www.newscafe.co.za
Growth
potential
Locally, two more News Café outlets to
be opened this year will bring the total restaurants
in the group up to 20.
The
first restaurant was opened in 1995 in Hatfield,
Pretoria. The first international store opened
in Harare, Zimbabwe in May 1999, followed by Abidjan,
Côte d'Ivoire in February 2001. Other international
expansion is on the cards.
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Chameleon
café
 The
News Café menu reflects the changing clientele
in the restaurants throughout the day. Business
breakfasts give way to mid-morning shoppers taking
a break, to local office workers popping in for
lunch, then housewives stopping for afternoon
tea with their pals, through to cocktails after
work, the evening supper crowd and lastly the
evening party crowd. Families abound over the
weekend.
The
franchise has a big menu and training of staff
to handle the variations is intensive. Obvious
Malaba is the head chef from head office who conducts
training on site. Where possible, products are
partially prepared at the company's Fusion Foods
central kitchen in Edenvale and finished off on
site, to protect the recipes.
The
menus are updated twice a year, with new lines
rigorously tested at the test kitchen in Rivonia,
a company restaurant, before being offered as
specials in the franchised restaurants.
New
additions, such as the Cheesy Jalapeño
Poppers and filled Wrapps, have become firm favourites
on the menu after starting out as specials. However,
the team has found that you can't mess with old
favourites, like ice-cream and chocolate sauce.
 Success
of new lines is ensured by extensive research,
including monitoring local and international trends
through magazines and trips around the world.
Each
site downloads sales data to head office staff
weekly to enable them to monitor overall food
and liquor sales statistics.
Flair
barman Robbie Wright was recently awarded a gold
medal for excellence at the international flair
bartending competition in Stuttgart.
What's
in a name? Well quite a lot, actually. Names of
new dishes are worded carefully so as to be easily
understood by customers. Spicy Beef Salad works
better than Beef and Couscous Salad, for example.
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