Spur sizzles with 83% profit jump as customers look to escape load shedding

Restaurant group Spur appears to be the beneficiary of more South Africans choosing restaurants over trying to cook during load shedding, with the owner of RocoMamas and Hussar Grill on Monday reporting a surge in full-year profits.

The group flagged a rise in headline earnings per share of as much as 83% for its year to end-June, when franchised restaurant sales climbed almost a quarter. While the company benefitted from a non-recurrence of one-off costs in the prior year, its shares still climbed more than 6% in afternoon trade.