Fast food chain Big Square founder exits

What you need to know:

Morne Deetlefs, the founder of Big Square with operations in Nairobi and Mombasa, formally exited the chain this year after being compensated by his business partners.
Until his exit, Big Square had been owned by four investors who also act as the directors of retail food outlet.

The founder of Kenyan fast food chain Big Square has exited the business under unclear circumstances, coming just nine years after he established the casual dining enterprise.

Morne Deetlefs, the founder of Big Square with operations in Nairobi and Mombasa, formally exited the chain this year after being compensated by his business partners with insiders citing boardroom wars and conflict of interest for his departure.

Sebastian McKinlay, the managing director at Big Square and whose investment vehicle Canter Equity Partners manages operations of the chain, confirmed that the South African born entrepreneur had left after compensation but “he remains a director”.

“Mr Deetlefs has decided to step down from the business and he is now establishing new business in Ghana. He is no longer on the normal day to day operations of the business,” said Mr McKinlay.

“He has been well compensated after negotiating with the company,” he added.

By the time of publishing this story, Mr Deetlefs had not responded to Business Daily questions sent to him last week.

Until his exit, Big Square had been owned by four investors who also act as the directors of retail food outlet.

Apart from Mr Deetlefs, who was the founder, the others were Joram Gatei, who is the son of Tuskys director Samuel Gatei, South-African based private equity fund Uqalo that recently invested Sh404 million in the business and a Zimbabwean national.

Even as this is happening, sources familiar with the operations of the Big Square told the Business Daily that the founder’s exit was mostly triggered by Canter Equity Partners owned by Mr Sebastian that allegedly started sidelining Mr Deetlefs in decision making.

Among other steps, the founder questioned how new investors were coming on board and securing majority stake.

However, Mr Sebastian denied the allegations.

“I have a consulting company Canter Equity Partners and it is the Big Square board that asked me to provide management and oversight roles when Mr Deetlefs left,” he said.