03 Feb Rand purchasing power: Why not a Nando’s index?

For reasons of national pride, wouldn’t it be interesting if South Africans could refer to a Nando’s index, rather than constantly measuring our purchasing power by the Big Mac index?

Of course, for reasons of mental fortitude, you might now want to see just how many rands it would take to snap up a quarter chicken and chips in a Nando’s outlet in a place like Singapore or Vancouver.

Today, the famous outlet, which was started by Robbie Brozin and Fernando Duarte in a small takeaway joint called Chickenland in Rosettenville, south of Johannesburg, in 1987, operates in 30 countries.

It’s a list that includes hard-currency powerhouses like the US and the UK (where it’s nothing less than a phenomenon) as well as some off-kilter destinations such as Bahrain, Oman, and Pakistan.

Less comfortingly, the cost of a meal varies just as much. Take a quarter chicken and chips: in SA you’ll pay R49.90 — among the cheapest across its global network.

Marginally pricier is Pakistan, where it will cost you R60, or India, where it edges up to R68.

In other countries, it’s a lot pricier. Thanks to the rand’s slide, for example, that same meal will cost you the equivalent of R99 at the Samora Machel Road branch in Harare, Zimbabwe.

But in the Nando’s store in Randolph Street in Barack Obama’s hometown of Chicago, you’ll have to fork out R128 at today’s exchange rate.

That’s still cheaper than Singapore, where in the Tanglin Mall it sells for R150, or in Dublin’s St Andrews Street outlet, where it’ll set you back R159.

The UK is in a similar range — R157, but it’s a small price to pay to share in the cuisine rumoured to be the meal of choice for everyone from rap star Kanye West to pop sensation Rihanna, tennis star Andy Murray and Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton.

Little wonder that, in 2013, The Telegraph billed Nando’s the “chicken that conquered Britain”.

Source: Financial Mail