The Man Who Created Spur.
Spur, one of South Africa’s most popular franchises, was founded over 50 years ago by Allen Amber.
Although the steakhouse is now a household name, its success is the product of a lot of hard work, controversy, and passion.
Ambor grew up as the only child of two Jewish parents who came to South Africa with nothing after fleeing Nazi Germany.
Growing up in Johannesburg in the 1940s, Ambor had a carefree childhood, he explained in his autobiography, A Taste for Life: How the Spur legend was born.
However, things were not always comfortable, and as a child, his family had to share a one-bedroom flat.
In his book, he tells the story of when their family once went on holiday, and his father missed their rental payment by one day. He said their landlord spared no time and kicked them out so he could increase the price of their rent-controlled apartment.
Ambor’s parents had a profound influence on him. They were very hard-working people, which instilled a good work ethic in Ambor.
As Germans, they were also meticulous, precise, and demanding, setting high standards for cleanliness and discipline.
“I think they set a great example for me,” Ambor told PolitySA.
He had a passion for drama, although he joked that “there was no great demand for my services, but I did get parts, especially amateur parts which don’t pay”.
It was only in university that his interests pivoted towards the business world.
After his father commented that he wasn’t working hard enough, Ambor decided to take matters into his own hands. He promised to pay his father back and put himself through school, which he did by working at a steakhouse.
He wasn’t used to having a large social circle, but he found that the bustling restaurant environment suited him very well.
He enjoyed serving people and working hard, and he developed close friendships with the owner’s nephews, who were running the business.
He was good at what he did, too. The owners would often phone him last minute asking for help when they were short-staffed, and Ambor would rush to work on his Buzz Bike.
After working for several other companies and feeling frustrated, thwarted, and bored, Ambor was eventually driven to open his own business.
His last job was as an assistant personnel manager at a large shoe manufacturer and retailer.
“After I left them, they kept phoning my mom and saying we want to re-employ him,” Ambor said. The company offered to give him a very good salary, but Ambor was unmoved.
“By then, I was determined I was going to open my own business, and I was going to open a steakhouse in Cape Town,” he said.
The founding of Spur
That is exactly what he did, and on 24 October 1967, Golden Spur was opened in Newlands, Cape Town.
However, it was not an easy process. Ambor had spent four years searching for a premises before he found the Newlands location.
Funds were limited as well, and at 26 years old, he started the business with R2,000 of his own money, R4,000 from his father, and additional capital from a last-minute partner, who was eventually bought out.
When Spur’s doors finally opened, the days were long and difficult. The restaurant was surrounded by a number of schools, and the day before it opened, they had the idea to tell the school kids they would get a free ice cream cone after school.
The marketing trick worked, and the business was an instant success with the children and their parents.
As a result, they were extremely busy from the start, which only made things harder. The overwhelming demand and the fact that they hadn’t yet been able to train staff properly meant they had to work tirelessly.
Ambor found himself working up to 20 hours a day, driving the staff home in his small Mini every second night, only to return a few hours later to open the shop for the day shift.
“They were tough days, but I loved what I was doing,” Ambor said.
“The dynamic of Golden Spur was so exciting. It was so busy, it was so hectic, it was so frantic, and at its core of this was this demanding man, namely myself, who wanted everything to be correctly done.”
In the early days, he had no plans of franchising yet. He was just trying to build a business that customers wanted to come back to.
However, it wasn’t long until he opened the second restaurant in Sea Point.
After that, he decided that franchising was the best option to grow the business, and by 1986 – almost two decades since it was founded – Spur was listed on the JSE.
Since then, the business has continued to grow, but it has not been without its controversies. Even the very core of the business’s branding, its Native American theme, has garnered criticism.
During the 1960s, there was something glamorous and magnetic for South Africans about a Wild West-themed steakhouse restaurant, and since he had worked for one in Johannesburg, Ambor decided to bring the concept to his new restaurant.
Initially, the logo featured a spur on a cowboy boot, but it bothered him that it represented cruelty towards animals.
By the early 1980s, he sensed a shift occurring in South Africa and wanted to send a positive signal to people of colour in the country that they were welcome at Spur.
He knew that choosing a local tribe wouldn’t go over well with white people at the time, but he found that using Native American imagery, a culture which he deeply admired, was widely accepted by the public.
Although the branding has since become a controversial issue, Ambor doesn’t believe changing it would be right, especially given how recognisable the Native American figurehead logo has become in South Africa.
Today, Spur is one of South Africa’s most well-known franchises, with locations all over the country.
By the time Ambor retired as executive chairman of the Spur Corporation in March 2019, the business had grown to an empire that included more than 500 franchises under the Spur, Panarottis, John Dory’s and RocoMamas brands.
His decision to leave Spur came as a result of his sour relationship with former Spur Corporation CEO Pierre Van Tonder.
“Resigning from Spur hurt me, and it took me months to recover,” he told BizNews.
“The behaviour of certain people was reprehensible, and I just didn’t want to deal with people whose behaviour wasn’t acceptable.”
While it was difficult for him to leave at first, Ambor does not regret his decision. Instead, he has focused on his other interests, including practising and teaching yoga, which he has loved for years.
“If you love something enough and are prepared to work very hard, follow your passion and give yourself a chance to love your life,” he said.