JOHANNESBURG, Jan 29 (Reuters) – South Africa’s Spur Corporation said on Friday half-year total franchised restaurant sales dropped 29.5% due to COVID-19 trading restrictions and lower consumer disposable incomes.

The restaurant sector has been one of the hardest hit industries in South Africa as lockdown restrictions, curfews, cuts in seating capacity and a ban on the sale of alcohol have hammered profits, pushing some out of business.

Spur’s total sales fell to 2.9 billion rand ($192 million) for the six months ended Dec. 31 from 4.1 billion rand in the same period a year earlier.

Sales from franchised restaurants declined by 31% in South Africa and by 17.3% in international restaurants in rand terms, the owner of the RocoMamas burger chain and Spur Steak Ranches said.

In December the South African government re-imposed some lockdown restrictions such as the ban on alcohol sales, longer night curfew hours and the closure of beaches.

This impacted Spur’s December sales, which declined by 25.8% in South Africa compared with a year earlier.

($1 = 15.1048 rand) (Reporting by Nqobile Dludla. Editing by Promit Mukherjee and Mark Potter)

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