It all started with a beer television advertisement. It shows a dreamer, called Vuyo, who starts selling boerewors (traditional sausages) rolls on the streets and becomes a global brand; ending with a party on his yacht.
Kubheka was impressed and did a bit of research, only to find out that the Vuyo’s brand and the character was fiction. He swiftly trademarked the name Vuyo’s and opened a restaurant based on the advert. The unintended consequence was that the ad was building the Vuyo’s brand.
“I saw the ad like everyone else. And I thought that’s actually a good ad. But for me it was such a positive story. It’s like true entrepreneurship starting from grass roots,” says Kubheka.
At the time, he was running a small IT and software firm called Notsi Group for five years, with a partner, following a seven year stint at Microsoft. This IT geek left his desktop to focus on the restaurant, with little knowledge about the food business.
“It’s one of those things where I literally saw an opportunity and I thought to myself, one can work their entire career and not build up that amount of branding needed that South African Breweries was putting into this thing [the television beer advertisement]. It was sitting there and nobody was doing anything about it. I think that was a compelling enough reason to go into an industry I didn’t know,” says Kubheka.
The entrepreneur started by selling at outdoor events, but this was too small for him. Like Vuyo, he dreamed bigger. Kubheka decided to move away from mobile units.
He went back to the advert with the premise of dreaming big. So naturally, the next step was to open a restaurant. He was turned away seven times by a landlord who eventually gave Kubheka the contract for a property located opposite the University of the Witwatersrand, one of the biggest universities in South Africa, a spot which would bring in the numbers. It was the same university in Johannesburg where he completed his IT and Master’s degree.
“Surprisingly most of my customers are the working class. They want to leave the office and go somewhere clean and uncrowded. In Braamfontein there are not many areas where you can have a fast casual dining experience,” says Kubheka.
He opened his restaurant in December 2012 to much fanfare and even ordered a flurry of artificial snow. This was a strange detail, but he claims it was to attract attention to the red and white restaurant. This was one of the dreams he had inked on a cupboard in his bedroom while growing up.
In high school, Kubheka wrote down a projected timeline for his goals on his wardrobe door: the year he would finish his final year of high school, own a car and make his first million. He has now achieved all of that.
Today, when you walk into the restroom at Vuyo’s, you are flanked by two walls full of graffiti, which might give you the impression that the place is not well looked after, but look more closely. In between all those scribbles and graphics are 10 of Kubheka’s goals for the restaurant: By 2018, he hopes to be FORBES AFRICA’s person of the year. By 2022, he wants to make Vuyo’s the number one global brand, and also to have opened around 1,000 stores all over the world a year before that.
He wants to make South African food world renowned and build something that lasts.
“One of my frustrations about the country is that there is no good South African restaurant that is franchised or gone global that sells good boerewors, dumplings or samp. There are none. More importantly, I just want South African food to be thought of no different from when you go to an Italian, French or Chinese restaurant and the like,” he says.
The 37 year old has achieved one of his first goals written on the wall. Vuyo’s signed a deal to have 300 branded mobile units outside Spar outlets, a grocery retailer, across the country. He says if each vendor sells 50 boerewors rolls at $1.9 each a day, they would make a net income of $1,160 a month.
“My big dream is to make other big dreamers, like guys who have a braai next to the stadium, so we can give them branded Vuyo’s carts for no upfront capital outlay. To me that’s what it’s about, to give other people a leg up. I had one or two leg ups on my journey,” says Kubheka.
In early November, Kubheka says they had started rolling out the mobile units at Spars in Johannesburg, while work is underway to open a second store in Bloemfontein, in South Africa’s Free State province.
At the main restaurant, they serve various traditional South African dishes ranging from pap, stews, morogo (African spinach), dumplings, samp and koeksisters.
“Our vision is simple. We want to make South African cuisines world class. And that’s how we’re going to change the world,” he says.
As lunchtime approaches and the restaurant starts filling up, Kubheka’s senses intensify. He looks around to see if customers are happy and whether they have received their food.
Kubheka is doing his best to make the Vuyo’s brand a success. Between his busy schedule of managing the restaurant, he even has time to have lunch with Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex and third son of Queen Elizabeth the second. He also presented his business model to Britain’s headline-grabbing billionaire Richard Branson.
“He was impressed with my business model and he is keen to invest in us [Vuyo’s]. We are busy with the due diligence,” says Kubheka.
This young entrepreneur is certainly not just a big dreamer and he is not resting on his laurels. He is too busy making strides in building Vuyo’s as the number one global brand.