Futurelife opens second restaurant to get 'closer' to shoppers

The popular breakfast cereal brand Futurelife has opened its second store, which offers everything from smoothies to clothing - as well as nutritional advice from an on-site dietician.

Futurelife was founded in KwaZulu-Natal in 2007 by chartered accountant and businessman Paul Saad, brother of Aspen CEO Stephen Saad.

He worked with scientists to design a nutrition-dense food product that could be mixed with water. The first range of cereals – direct competition to Pioneer Foods' ProNutro - was launched in 2009.

In 2015, Pioneer Foods bought a stake in the group and earlier this year, US giant Pepsico – the new owners of Pioneer – took full control of Futurelife.

Futurelife, which now offers a range of other products like shakes and granola bars, has recently ventured into retail outlets, opening its first store at Ocean Mall in Umhlanga. A second store was launched at Canal Walk in Cape Town.

PepsiCo SA CEO Riaan Heyl said while it was "still early days", the group was also considering opening a third Futurelife concept store in Gauteng.

The stores have cafés that sell coffee as well as Futurelife-infused products, like smoothies, yoghurts, muffins and oat cups. Heyl said the stores were "just another way of getting closer to consumers in SA".

Branded clothing is also sold, and a dietician is on-site at both stores to help customers with healthy eating advice, and allow them to take basic health tests and obtain personalised eating plans.

"We are a country that is challenged from a health and nutrition perspective, like many others. And this is really an opportunity to educate, to support, and of course also elevate the commercial agenda of the brand. But really it is about getting closer to consumers," Heyl said.

The stores will host tasting sessions and cooking demonstrations, in an effort to showcase the versatility of the Futurelife product ranges, "beyond just the normal application," he added.

"The store in Umhlanga has been a real success, so we have copied and pasted that concept with some nuanced learnings and taken it to Cape Town. As it stands, we have the two, but we are exploring the opportunity to create a similar one in what we refer to as the inland or Gauteng region, but we haven’t committed to further expansion yet."

Earlier this month, Futurelife opened a R75 million manufacturing facility in the Dube Tradeport Special Economic Zone in KwaZulu-Natal.