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Cape Town – Health food junkies obsessed with a post-gym Kauai princess wrap and mango smoothie are in for an enriching boost after the announcement on Tuesday that the healthy fast food chain has been bought out by a new innovative food group.
Real Foods, the company behind Nü Health Food Café, has bought all 100% shares in the Kauai group, ending the journey of three friends who were inspired on a trip to Hawaii and launched the first store 19 years ago in Cape Town.
The brand has grown to 154 stores, including 59 full retail stores, 85 within the Virgin Active facilities, two Kohu concept stores and five Kauai at School stores.
Kauai will undergo massive changes, with a new corporate identity, new store look and feel and product changes.
Founded in 2013, Real Foods is owned by Dean Kowarski and Genesis Capital Partners.
Real Foods CEO Kowarski, who now takes over the role as Kauai CEO, told Fin24 at the Saxon Hotel in Johannesburg on Tuesday that the move was a healthy one for the established health food group.
“We will take a couple of stores and rebrand them into Nü Health Food Cafés and then revitalise the other Kauai outlets,” he said.
Nü is a premium and cutting-edge restaurant serving fresh and healthy food with a conscience, Kowarski explained.
The first two Kauai stores to get a healthy revamp will be launched in Dainfern and Rosebank in June 2015.
“They are going to change, be more relevant, cool and sexy, without losing what they are doing at the moment,” he said. “We want to shake it up, take it forward because the market is ready for change, but we won’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”
Kowarski said they would offer a food theatre experience, where “food was first and foremost delicious, as well as free of additives, preservatives, and is convenient and affordable”.
Going forward, the Kauai brand will no longer be positioned as a “healthy quick service restaurant, but rather a healthy fast casual restaurant – fast casual is the fast-growing global segment within the restaurant industry positioned between fast food and casual dining”.
“Real Foods is capitalising on this global trend. To be at the forefront of this movement we will be re-looking Kauai’s entire healthy food eco-system to build a supply chain that supports sustainable farming practices and sources the best quality local fresh produce.”
Watch the interview with Kowarski:
