Author: Allen Ambor
Title: A Taste for Life- How the Spur Legend was Born.
Publishers: Tafelberg (2021)
In the sixties when the first Golden Spur opened in Cape Town, R2 would have bought you a rump steak, fresh salad and a drink. However, now with a five year old son wanting to visit our local Spur almost every second week, I can only wish that price still existed on the menu. A Taste for Life is about Allen Ambor’s relentless wish and hunger to build a restaurant empire that offers a family experience and mouth-watering quality food. Currently with over six hundred franchise outlets in sixteen countries globally and holding popular brands such as Spur Steak Ranches, Panarottis, RocoMamas and Hussar Grill, Ambor established Spur Corporation from a R4000 start-up capital and a childhood dream. Sitting one day with school friends at a cinema watching a Western is where the author suspects the cowboy and Native American theme caught his spirit. Indeed this book offers the good, the bad and the ugly of running a restaurant franchise. Beyond the role of entrepreneurship in society, other key themes explored in this book include the evolution of the restaurant industry in South Africa, how to build a great team from waiters to senior management and the importance of captivating customer relationships.
Throughout high school and post apprenticeship in Europe, the author mentions that he also held his part-time job as a waiter at Seven Steer House of Steaks in Highlands north of Johannesburg. This was one of the restaurants owned by the Halamandres family with George Senior or Uncle George at the helm. This family had been building a food empire that included Milky Lane, the Burger Ranch and Seven Steer. The family also had a small but growing chain of American-style restaurants with a Golden Spur branch in Rosebank, Johannesburg. A maverick at heart and always up for a new challenge, the author proposed an idea to Uncle George to open a Golden Spur franchise in Cape Town. Although initially he didn’t get the necessary support from the Halamandres as the franchisors, Ambor was undeterred.
Franchise model and American influence
Most of the franchises found in South Africa and other countries have their roots in the United States of America. Popular brands such as KFC, McDonalds, Wimpy and Burger King have their beginnings in this land of takeaways. Even some of the major South African brands are a success due to the founders taking trips to the USA. For example, during his tour of the USA in the seventies, Chicken Licken’s founder George Sombonos, bought a secret fried chicken recipe from the owner of a fast food outlet in Texas. It is no surprise then that Spur followed the same route. The book mentions that Uncle George took a sabbatical to America that inspired his ambitions of franchising and cowboy-themed steakhouses. This inspiration filtered in the décor of the franchise that Ambor would eventually set up throughout South Africa. The author writes that the image of hard-won contentment and heroic myth of the Old West combined with old Hollywood movies became the archetypal South African steakhouses of the sixties. This provided the basis to create a franchise restaurant with a unique proposition to new markets.
Unique proposition
However as markets change, strategies and unique offerings must also change in order for the business to stay relevant. The book highlights Spur’s transition from a cowboy theme to a Native American theme where motifs of head-dresses and teepees were becoming a more prominent feature in the décor of their branches. This led to a major revamp of the logo into the head of a Native American chief. The author states that the chief has become “an instantly recognizable symbol of promise and welcome” with chiseled features hanging on the billboards of shopping centre walls. The author contends that a brand is not only built by its founders but by its customers, franchisees, staff and shareholders. Beyond the family experiences; excellent customer service, kids entertainment and a steakhouse’s theater of senses, Ambor mentions that other unique features that made Spur successful was the secret sauces used as basting on their steaks and ribs: “Sauces are secrets, more valuable than money, which is why you keep the recipes locked up in a safe” the author states.
Business challenges
The book does also explore the challenges Ambor faced in the restaurant industry such as intellectual property issues, finding the correct franchisees and leadership issues in top management structures at Spur Corporation. For instance in the chapter “Remembering Pierre” – which may cause some controversies between past and present management at Spur Corporation – the author makes severe proclamations. This chapter highlights leadership challenges between the author when he was Executive Chairman of Spur Corporation and the late CEO Pierre van Tonder. The author argues that Van Tonder made inaccurate strategic decisions regarding the acquisition of Captain DoRegos and John Dory’s expansion to the Australian market. The author makes it seem that van Tonder was a power hungry and difficult leader who didn’t listen to counsel. This sentiment is also expressed towards some leaders’ throughout the book without the author’s reciprocity about his own leadership failures. This may be something that may not wash down well with some readers who may feel the book is a biased public relations project wanting to glorify the author’s own successes while relishing over others’ failures.
Something is missing
The book does touch on how in their marketing efforts they showed the possibilities of integration, where families and workers of all races could happily engage with one another in close quarters since its inception in the seventies. There is also a word on the incident at Texamo Spur at The Glen Shopping Center in 2017; of a scuffle between a black woman and white male customer, arguing over whose child hit the other on the head in the kids play area. Despite this however, there was minimal discussion of how socio-political environment affected the business over the decades from apartheid times to democratic country. A comment on how Spur and its management engaged with major events like first democratic elections, the 1996 Rugby World Cup and 2010 Soccer World Cup, would have broadened the reader’s understanding of the role of a restaurant business in a changing country.
A company profile or a memoir
The overall theme of the book along with the title is also rather ambiguous. I was rather left puzzled if the book is about the growth of the Spur Corporation or a memoir about Allen Ambor. The word “memoir” comes from the French word “memoire” meaning memory or to reminisce or someone telling a story as they remember it. However, it seems that the author left out other parts about his life such as fatherhood, marriage and other business ambitions. Except for Muzi Kuzwayo’s foreword, there were no other testimonials from peers, former employees or mentees in order to offer better understanding of the author beyond his work at Spur Corporation. For the most part, the book does feel haphazard and rushed and thereby does not give a comprehensive detail on the author’s life.
Conclusion
This book is can nevertheless be recommended to business students, entrepreneurs and restaurant practitioners. However, unlike the juicy steaks and crunchy onion rings that I would order as my son enjoys endless fun in the kids play area, this offering left me dissatisfied from the lack of that secret recipe of what makes a well-written and balanced memoir. Born to Jewish migrants, Allen Ambor has shown “revolutionary zeal” in his business efforts. He is passionate, driven and a risk-taker which is something no one can ever take away from him. He has learned by osmosis from those who ran great businesses so that he too could establish one of the biggest and most loved restaurant brands in South Africa and internationally too.
Rolland Simpi Motaung 2021
