Mr D Food and Retail Capital, two South African brands that are invested in the growth of the country, have collaborated to provide easy-to-access restaurant funding for the South African restaurant industry.

The pre-approved, turnover based funding is now available to Mr D Food restaurant partners – 6900 restaurants nationwide. These establishments can use the funding for whatever the restaurant owners need to run and possibly scale their businesses. This includes things like marketing, buying stock or even building renovations. The best part is that qualifying Mr D Food restaurant partners receive pre-approved funding offers, and can complete Retail Capital’s simple online acceptance process to access the funds within 24 hours.

While this partnership has been in the works since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the simple and quick access to funding has come at a time where the industry needs it the most. The impact of the virus on restaurants has been undeniable. Recent stats from Retail Capital show that the industry is operating at 85% of its turnover, compared to the same time last year. Due to reduced demand, many eateries have been forced to trim their menus to reduce stock holding and are running with a skeleton staff and shorter shifts. The available funding will allow restaurants to hopefully recover from this challenging period and look for ways to drive growth in their operations.

“Since the start of the lockdown on 26 March 2020, Retail Capital has provided over R600m in funding to support to over 7000 small businesses,” said Retail Capital CEO Karl Westvig. The brand has also donated R100 000 to the Eat Out Restaurant Relief Fund which raised funds to help keep restaurants in business so they can keep cooking for the needy during the hard lockdown.

“Beyond that, we suspended debit orders for our clients during the lockdown, so they could use that money to keep their businesses afloat and pay their staff. Millions of South Africans from all walks of life depend on the survival of SMEs,” he added. 

“Mr D Food recognises the significant impact that the pandemic and the national lockdown has had on our restaurant partners. Funding, and access to funding, are of critical importance to restaurants right now as they look to adapt their operations to changes in consumer behaviour and ongoing regulations. With delivery becoming an increasingly important revenue stream for restaurants, we are delighted to add the partnership with Retail Capital to our value proposition to restaurants.” said Devin Sinclair, CEO of Mr D Food.

In addition to the new Retail Capital partnership initiative, Mr D Food has also supported restaurants by:
– raising over R3.6million in contributions to restaurants through the novel COVID-19 Contribution feature inside the Mr D Food app

– implementing a commission relief scheme from May until September which reduced the delivery commission rates for the vast majority of restaurant partners

– launching the new Mr D Food “Restaurant Essentials” supplies portal on takealot.com

Being a business that provides funding to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Retail Capital is uniquely poised to make a real difference to the restaurant industry, fast, without the delay and obstructive red tape.

The funding has been structured with the restaurant business in mind. In line with the fluctuating nature of restaurant operations, the funding repayment options offer flexibility. Repayment is linked to the performance of the business. Since payments are directly tied to business turnover, restaurants don’t need to worry about making payments or missing payment deadlines when having a slow month.

With limited international travel, forecasts show that coastal restaurants will have a busy period this festive season, as many local Holidaymakers will flock to the seaside.

Since 2011, Retail Capital has provided over 28,000 small businesses with over R3bn in funding. “We are very excited to bring this critical product to Mr D Food’s restaurant partners so that they can survive and thrive through the busy season and beyond,” said Retail Capital CEO Karl Westvig.