Spur to appeal after order to pay GPS Food R75m in damages

Spur Corporation says it will appeal an award of damages to the local subsidiary of GPS Food Group in a dispute that has been running since 2019.

Earlier this month, the arbitrator issued the quantum of damages, a year after finding in favour of GPS Food on the merits of Claim A.

In terms of the award, Spur is to pay GPS Food a capital sum of R74.6 million, plus interest at the prescribed rate of 10% per annum from the date of the original summons.

Moneyweb calculates this total at about R123 million.

GPS increases claim

Late last year, GPS increased its claim to an amount of R233 million, plus interest.

The original damages claim (A) ranged between R119.9 million and R167 million. This comprised the “accumulated counterfactual profits less accumulated actual losses for the term of the alleged joint venture [JV]” of between five and 15 years.

Spur says it “intends to lodge an appeal against this award in its entirety”. It adds that its “senior counsel have advised that, in their view, it is likely that the group will succeed in its appeal against the Claim A award”.

The group has the right to appeal in terms of the arbitration agreement, and this will be “presided over by an appeal panel of three senior independent arbitrators”.

The appeal is scheduled for February 2027, and any award from this would be final.

The group has now raised a total provision of R129.5 million for the award, which implies legal costs to date of close to R6.5 million. Until now, it had not raised any provision.

An alternative claim (B) was for R95.8 million against the group and Pierre van Tonder, the group’s then CEO. Van Tonder died by suicide at his Sea Point home in May 2021, after retiring as CEO in December 2020.

This was a so-called delictual claim and was based on alleged misrepresentation by the parties pertaining to the JV agreement. This claim, which comprised GPS’s alleged accumulated losses up to the date of the claim, was dismissed by the arbitrator.

Heart of the dispute

Spur admits that it engaged with GPS over several years regarding the supply of products, and that the parties held discussions “regarding the prospects of concluding a joint venture” to acquire, develop and manage a rib processing facility.

This is at the heart of the dispute.

GPS says an oral agreement was concluded between the parties, which Spur allegedly repudiated, giving rise to a breach-of-contract and damages claim. However, Spur says that “no written agreement was ever executed with GPS”.

The matter was referred to arbitration, which ran between October 2023 and December 2024.

The arbitrator then in October 2025 issued directions that the experts appointed by both GPS Food and Spur carry out the calculations necessary to determine the quantum of the contractual claim (A).

This was because there were “significant discrepancies” in the calculations of the two parties’ experts. GPS subsequently increased its claim to R233 million (as at 27 October 2025), while Spur said its expert had calculated that GPS’s claim should amount to R116 million, or alternatively R126 million.

GPS originally established a rib processing facility in Cape Town in around 2017. It intended for this to be the exclusive supplier to the Spur Group and its franchisees (primarily Spur and RocoMamas, and to a far lesser extent John Dory’s).

Spur heads for appeal

Spur has said throughout the dispute that its professional advice concluded it was more likely than not that it would be able to successfully defend the claims.

This was after it engaged with its attorneys and senior counsel, who “assessed and presented a review of the merits of the case and prospects of success”.

It added that, “supported by the opinion of its legal advisors, the board considers that the probability of the occurrence of the claimed losses, at this point in the legal proceedings, is therefore not likely”.

This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here.