How to Grow a Franchise in South Africa: Heike Werth’s Story
Franchise business growth in South Africa doesn’t always follow a smooth path, but for Heike Werth, the toughest conditions turned into her biggest opportunity.
In early 2021, while the Covid-19 pandemic was still reshaping South Africa’s economy, Heike Werth was looking at a beauty salon.
The beauty industry had ground to a halt. Sorbet stores had closed under lockdown regulations. Some franchise partners were looking to exit. Most potential buyers were waiting for certainty before making a move.
Heike, then 26, decided she wasn’t going to wait. Five years later, she runs two Sorbet salons in Cape Town, leads a team of 43 nail technicians and beauty therapists, and serves on Sorbet’s Strategic Council. Her V&A Waterfront salon consistently ranks among the top two Sorbet stores nationally by trading density.
Her story is not a lucky break. It’s the result of a deliberate approach to franchise business growth, one that started with an honest assessment of risk, and never let go of it.
Building a Foundation for Franchise Business Growth in South Africa
Heike didn’t come from the beauty industry. She studied management accounting and journalism, lectured at Stellenbosch University, and later moved into communications at a fund manager, specialising in crisis communication and stakeholder management.
When Covid-19 hit, the fund manager sent staff home and markets became volatile. Heike moved back to Cape Town. And while most people were putting plans on hold, she and her father, her biggest business mentor, started paying close attention to what was happening in the franchise market.
“Nobody knew if there would be a recovery. But history keeps proving that in a recession, things do recover. The question is whether you’re in a safe enough position to take a calculated risk.”
Buying a Sorbet during a pandemic wasn’t an emotional leap of faith. It meant understanding the strength of the brand, assessing the likely recovery of Waterfront foot traffic, and being honest about how much risk she was prepared to carry. At 26, with no dependents and a solid support system, she decided she was in a safe enough position.
That kind of thinking, not just can I afford this? but am I positioned to carry the downside if it goes wrong? It runs through everything she’s done since.
Building the foundation for franchise expansion
The first salon grew strongly: 34% in its first two years off a low base, stabilising at 17% annually and eventually settling at inflation-rate growth. Between 1,300 and 1,700 clients a month move through the V&A Waterfront salon, depending on the season.
But Heike wasn’t just building revenue. From the beginning, she was building the conditions for what came next.
She worked to a three-year plan:
- Year one: Learn how the business actually works.
- Year two: Stabilise, refine, and enjoy running it.
- Year three: Look seriously at expansion.
Learn more: Create a Cash Flow Forecast for your Small Business
She also focused on paying down the debt on her first business as quickly as possible, rather than extracting maximum income from it. That financial discipline – prioritising the balance sheet over short-term earnings, is what created the flexibility to consider a second acquisition earlier than expected.
When she did start looking at expansion, it wasn’t impulsive. Nearly two years of due diligence followed: assessing locations, modelling costs, evaluating staffing requirements, and stress-testing the numbers against higher interest rates.
Sorbet at Lifestyle on Kloof was the site that made sense. Close enough to the V&A Waterfront salon to share an operational manager. The right growth potential. She signed in February 2026.
“It’s a very difficult financial time. Petrol goes up almost daily. Everything is more expensive. Interest rates are higher. Life is financially hard.”
She knows the conditions aren’t perfect. She moved anyway. It’s a practical model for business expansion in a tough economy — don’t wait for certainty that may never fully arrive.
Managing people: The hidden challenge of franchise ownership
From the outside, owning a beauty franchise can look like a lifestyle business. In reality, Heike’s days look like any other owner-operator’s: long hours, capital decisions, staff issues, and the constant small operational fires that come with running a team.
“The steepest part of the learning curve was realising how hard it is to manage people.”
Many of her employees are sole breadwinners. Early on, she tried to handle everything herself, rosters, stock control, disciplinary processes, front-desk operations. That approach worked when the business was smaller. It became unsustainable as the team grew.
Over time, she built structure: developing front-desk staff, appointing an operational manager, creating a layer of floor managers. Today her focus is more strategic but she stays close to the floor.
“I still know how to work the till and make bookings. I love being on the floor, talking to clients. The team needs to see that I understand what’s happening, not just reading reports.”
Her biggest lesson from scaling: you can’t grow what you haven’t systematised. The second salon is only possible because the first one can run without her being present for every decision.
We always promote the importance of continuity planning and make sure you company go on without you, read creating a business continuity plan.
What any SA franchise owner — or business owner — can take from this
Heike’s story sits in the beauty and franchise sector. But the principles that got her here apply to any established business owner thinking about their next move.
Assess position before you assess opportunity.
The question isn’t just whether an opportunity looks good. It’s whether you’re in a safe enough position to carry the downside if it doesn’t go as planned. This is the discipline behind calculated risk business growth — knowing your downside before you commit to the upside.
Pay down debt before you expand.
Short-term income feels good; a clean balance sheet creates options.
Due diligence is not a formality.
Two years of location assessment, cost modelling, and financial stress-testing is what separates a calculated risk from a gamble.
Build an operational structure before you need it.
She built the management layer into the first business so the second one had a foundation to stand on.
The first year of anything is a brutal learning curve.
Expect it. Plan for it. Don’t mistake short-term pressure for a sign that the decision was wrong.
Meet our other business experts; read the Kalnisha Singh leadership story: Intentional leadership: How Kalnisha Singh built KD Strategies on planning and purpose
A note for South African business owners wanting growth
Whether you’re an SA franchise owner, run an independent retail operation, a service business, or something more industrial, the question of when to expand, and whether you’re ready, is one of the hardest you’ll face as an owner.
At Genfin, we work with established South African businesses across a wide range of sectors, businesses where the owner carries the full weight of the decision, and where funding needs to fit the way the business actually works, not the other way around.
If you have a plan and need capital to execute it, we’d like to talk.
Need funding to solve a cash flow gap?
Genfin offers flexible business funding from R100K to R3 million, with offers in 24 hours and no hidden fees. Apply now or get in touch with a dedicated business funding analyst who can help you find the right loan solution for your business.
Heike Werth has been featured in Bizcommunity and Sorbet Group communications. Biographical information is drawn from publicly available sources.