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Food Lover's Market
South African supermarket chain From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Food Lover's Market (often referred to as Food Lover's) is a South African supermarket chain that operates franchised grocery stores and convenience stores in Southern Africa.[4] The company is a member of the Franchise Association of South Africa.[1]
Headquartered in Cape Town, Food Lover's is South Africa's largest privately owned retailer.[5] As of 2022, the company had over 300 stores in South Africa, 2 in Botswana, 3 in Zimbabwe, and 3 in Namibia.[6]
Food Lover's owns one of South Africa's largest café chains, Seattle Coffee Company, as well as major gas station convenience store brand FreshStop, which operates at Astron Energy forecourts.[7][8]
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History
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The company was established in 1993 as a single Fruit & Veg City store in Access Park, a factory outlet complex in the Kenilworth suburb of Cape Town.[1] The initial store was converted from an existing business, The Carrot King, into a Fruit & Veg City store. [9]
Food Lover's Market was founded by brothers Brian and Mike Coppin, whose father had been the Director of OK Bazaars,[9] a retail chain that was acquired by the Shoprite Group in 1997.[10] When it opened, the company sourced its products directly from farmers and municipal markets and priced them aggressively to grow in the market whilst competing with existing large retail chains.[9]
In 1995, the brothers were approached by someone wanting to operate a store in Port Elizabeth, and the first franchise store opened. Franchises in East London, Durban, Bloemfontein, and Pretoria followed.[9] The company opened its first store in Johannesburg in 1999.[9]
In 2012, Food Lover's Market expanded its offering to include non-food items and announced that it would be converting all Fruit & Veg City outlets to its Food Lover's Market brand.[11] In 2014, the company announced it would begin stocking items in a number of grocery categories from British retailer Waitrose.[11]
In 2015, the company received an R760 million investment from emerging market investor Actis.[3] The firm's CEO, Brian Coppin, stated that the company was attracted to Actis' history of working with family-owned businesses.[3]
In 2025 research, published by a South African media outlet, Food Lover's Market was found to have the cheapest basket of goods amongst major South African supermarket chains, by a significant margin.[12]
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Brands
The company also operates 24-hour convenience stores under the FreshStop brand at over 200 Caltex gas stations across South Africa.[4] It also sells liquor at Market Liquor stores next to select Food Lover's outlets[4] and operates cafeteria-style restaurants at Food Lover's Eatery locations.[13]
Partnerships
Food Lover's Market receives some of its products from South African company Cape Roasters and supplies its stores through FVC International, a South African import and export company.[4]
South African coffee chain Seattle Coffee Company has outlets at Food Lover's Market and FreshStop stores across the country.[14]
Food Lover's Market has a partnership with South African bank ABSA, whereby ABSA customers can earn cash back by using their debit and credit cards at Food Lover's stores.[15]
References
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