Retail

The billionaire’s son creating a fast-food giant in South Africa with hundreds of new stores across the country

Daily Investor • 31 July 2026

Adrian Basson, the son of billionaire Shoprite king, Whitey Basson, has built Hungry Lion into one of South Africa’s top fast-food outlets.

Hungry Lion was created by the Shoprite Group in 1997 and originally operated as a subsidiary to use spare floor space adjacent to Shoprite supermarkets.

It was part of Shoprite and CEO Whitey Basson’s strategy to expand its business offerings and enter the Quick Service Restaurant sector.

It opened its first store in Eikestad Mall in Stellenbosch to test the concept, and it was an instant success.

This success led Shoprite to open more stores in South Africa and expand its footprint into Zambia, Namibia, Eswatini, and Botswana.

Adrian Basson joined the company in 2001 as general manager and spearheaded its rebranding and operational separation into a standalone fast-food entity.

Three years later, he acquired 50% of Hungry Lion for R22 million. Following this transaction, Hungry Lion operated as a 50/50 joint venture with Shoprite.

Basson remained the general manager of Hungry Lion until January 2015, after which he served as chief digital officer of the Shoprite Group for two years.

By 2018, Shoprite Group was streamlining operations to double down on its core supermarket operations, Shoprite, Checkers, and Usave.

Fast-food operations fell outside this primary retail strategy, and Hungry Lion did not fit into its long-term vision. This created an opening for Adrian Basson.

Basson bought Shoprite’s remaining interest in Hungry Lion on 1 July 2018, and he returned to the company as chief executive.

At the time of the deal, the fast-food chain had 204 outlets across South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, and Swaziland.

Whitey Basson, Adrian Basson, and Hungry Lion

Although Adrian Basson is now leading Hungry Lion as chief executive, he also had the option to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Whitey Basson told Conversations with Lelethu that he asked his son, Adrian, whether he would like to take over the reins at Shoprite.

“My son’s response was: ‘Thank you, but keep your job. Having grown up under you, I don’t ever want a job like yours was,” Basson said.

“He said that he would rather start and run his own business than be subjected to everyone else’s wishes in this company.”

He said that Adrian is now leading Hungry Lion, where he controls 100% of the company without interference and unnecessary complications.

Whitey Basson said that his agreement with his son was that he would never give away control of the company and would never list it for money.

Adrian Basson stuck to this deal, and he now runs Hungry Lion as an independent, privately held business.

Under his leadership, Hungry Lion has expanded aggressively across South Africa, and it is opening new stores every week.

At the start of the year, Basson said that Hungry Lion operated in 9 African countries with over 500 stores.

Hopefully, we will add another 10 countries in the next 3 years and another 500 stores,” he said in a statement.

The growth accelerated this year. “In June 2026, we celebrated 7 new store openings and 2 store revamps, marking another exciting month of expansion,” he said.

These new additions are part of Basson’s goal of opening 200 new Hungry Lion stores this year. This makes it the fastest-growing fast-food chain in South Africa.

Their expansion plans are so aggressive that the company is proactively asking people for new locations where they can open stores.

“Growth like this is only possible with the right locations. If you know of any high-potential sites or opportunities, we’d love to hear from you,” he said.

All Hungry Lion stores are corporate-owned

Basson explained that all the Hungry Lion stores are corporate-owned. “We own and run our own stores,” he said.

He added that they use the latest technology to run the business, which has an extensive footprint, from Stellenbosch.

‘We can run a store in Upington, Luanda, Lusaka, and Windhoek efficiently by using technology,” he said.

“We do not need a franchise owner to run a Hungry Lion store. We have the technology and systems to run a store efficiently anywhere.”

He explained that, when it comes to locations and store size, they are rolling out stores ranging from 100 to 200 square meters.

“Our sweet spot is between 160 and 180 square meters, if we do our own seating. However, in a food court, we can do 100 square meters,” he said.

The company handles all store design in-house, giving it the flexibility to tailor the design to the available location.

An important thing they are looking for is existing foot traffic. That can be in a shopping mall, at a service station, or any other high-traffic area.