FranchisingNews
The recent outbreak of
listeriosis in South Africa made
the front pages of world news,
with the largest food-borne
outbreak ever recorded in
human history. Tragically
it left at least 180 people
dead and about a thousand
cases of infection. Traced to
the manufacturing facilities
of Enterprise and Rainbow
brands of processed meats
in Polokwane and the Free
State respectively, polony wasidentified as a definite source
of the bacteria. Other products
such as viennas, Russians,
frankfurters, sausages and cold
meats could also be affected
due to the risk of cross-
contamination.
While the South African
National Halaal Authority
(SANHA) has no association
with these factories, the
organisation felt it important
to urge all stakeholders to take
a lesson from this incident
and do everything in their
capacity to strive towards
procuring, preparing and
serving humanity with clean,
wholesome, nutritious food.
"Halaal Dietary Law is anall-encompassing Divine
regulation which not only
governs the legal status of
permissibility or otherwise of
a food item, but also focuses
on issues of hygiene and
public health safety. Food
items prepared according to
Halaal procedures would be
rendered Haraam (unlawful) if
determined to be hazardous
and injurious to human
health. Halaal is thus an
all-encompassing standard
and cannot be dismissed as a
simple matter of food safety
when lives are lost.
A single death is too many,"
said SANHA spokesperson,
Ebi Lockhat.PIZZA HUT
on track with
ambitious African
expansion
Pizza Hut's African growth story
continues as the restaurant
chain celebrates the opening of
its 100th store in sub-Saharan
Africa in the historic Ghandi
Square, Johannesburg. A division
of global giant Yum! Brands Inc.,
the pizza franchise entered the
African market three and a half
years ago with its first restaurant
opening in Johannesburg, and
ambitious expansion plans for
the continent.
Pizza Hut restaurants now
trade in 13 sub-Saharan African
countries, with an additional
90 stores in Morocco, Egypt
and Algeria, bringing the total
to 190 across the African
continent. According to the
brand, this aggressive growth
in Africa reflects the untapped
opportunities offered by
emerging markets for the chain,
which already has over 16,
restaurants in more than 100
countries.
General manager of Pizza Hut
Africa, Ewan Davenport, says,
"We are on track with the
African growth story we started
in September 2014 and we are
hugely proud of our progress. As
we expand our footprint in these
markets, we continue to add and
develop strong local supply chain
partners so that we can bring
our top quality, affordable pizza
to customers in African regions
where pizza is not as prevalent
as elsewhere in the world."
SANHA taking
a stand for
clean, safe
foodIf you own a retail outlet,
you no doubt scrambled
to get your price tags
updated for the 1 April
VAT increase from 14%
to 15%. While larger
retailers using electronic
shelf labels could perform
this change quite easily
with electronic systems,
changing every single
price in smaller retailers
still using paper price
tags is no mean feat. The
cost implications of new
labels, not to mention the
extra staff needed to do
the change-over will have
had an impact on small
business.According to the website
http://www.thevatlady.co.za,
here are five tips aboutthe VAT increase:
▪ While prices advertised
are deemed to include
VAT, SARS says they
understand that some
vendors may have
difficulty changing systems
and things. Vendors will
be allowed to advertise
or mark their prices as
excluding VAT, but must
display signs in prominent
places that this is the
case. They are allowed to
do this till the 31st May
2018.
▪ If you submit two
monthly VAT returns and
your VAT return covers
the March/April tax
period, SARS says they
will produce a VAT return
that sees to this problem.
They don't say yet howit will look, just that
more information will be
communicated.
▪ You may not claim
15% VAT on expenses or
purchases on which 14%
VAT has been charged!
Remember to check your
tax invoices from your
suppliers to ensure they
have charged you the
correct rate of VAT.
▪ If your supplier charges
you 14% VAT after 1 April
2018, then you are only
entitled to claim the 14%
and not recalculate and
claim 15%. So ensure your
suppliers get it right.
▪ You may^ adjust your
prices to cover the VAT
increase, but SARS doesn't
say that you must.VAT increase a headache for unprepared
retailers