SuperSAKE win highlights Col’Cacchio’s evolution from restaurant brand to growing multi-channel business

The business award adds to a run of recent recognition for the South African-born restaurant group across its restaurant and retail operations.

Col’Cacchio has received a SuperSAKE Award at the 2026 ontbytSAKE Toekennings, adding business recognition to a recent run of awards for the 34-year-old South African restaurant group.

The award was presented at the annual ontbytSAKE awards evening at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria on 10 September 2026.

While Col’Cacchio has built its reputation around restaurants and pizza, the SuperSAKE recognition comes at a time when the business is reaching customers in more ways than it did when it opened its first restaurant in 1992. Today, the brand operates across restaurants and delivery, while a retail business that began during COVID with a fresh pizza range has since expanded into fresh and frozen retail offerings across selected SPAR and Checkers stores, as well as Nibbly Bits countrywide.

“For us, receiving a SuperSAKE Award is particularly meaningful because it recognises the business behind the brand,” says Etienne Pieterse, Group CEO of Col’Cacchio. “Col’Cacchio has been around for more than three decades, but longevity on its own is not enough. You have to keep adapting to how and where customers want to experience your brand.”

Recognition across restaurant and retail

The SuperSAKE win follows recent recognition for both sides of Col’Cacchio's business.

The group was named Best Restaurant Chain in South Africa at the 2026 South African Restaurant Awards, retaining the title it won in 2025.

Its growing frozen-pizza range has also received Gold and Silver at the Food & Home Awards in the Frozen and Ready-Made Meals category. The Butternut, Feta and Pumpkin Seed Praline pizza received Gold and was named Best Pizza in the category, while the Frozen Pepperoni and Portuguese Sausage Pizza received Silver.

For Col’Cacchio, the recent wins feel like a reflection of how far the brand has come. From its restaurants to a retail range now finding its place in South African homes, and now recognition for the strength of the business itself through the SuperSAKE Award.

“What makes the recent recognition special is that it comes from different parts of what we do,” says Etienne Pieterse, Group CEO of Col’Cacchio. “Our restaurants remain at the heart of Col’Cacchio, but the business around them continues to grow. We have had to learn, change and find new ways to reach customers while still protecting what people expect when they see our name.”

34 years of building a South African brand

Founded in 1992, Col’Cacchio has grown from its South African roots to a restaurant footprint spanning South Africa, Namibia and Mauritius.

The business has also changed significantly over that time. Delivery created another way for customers to access the restaurant menu, while COVID led Col’Cacchio to test a fresh retail pizza range in a single Sea Point supermarket, before later expanding into frozen pizzas with Checkers. That experiment has since developed into a retail range stocked through selected SPAR and Checkers stores and Nibbly Bits countrywide.

Rather than replacing the restaurant experience, Pieterse says those channels have allowed the business to reach the same customer in different settings.

“Thirty-four years gives you a lot to be proud of, but it also gives you a responsibility to keep moving,” he says. “The challenge is knowing what should change and what shouldn't. However, people choose to have Col’Cacchio, the quality and experience attached to the name still have to be there.”

For Pieterse, the SuperSAKE recognition is as much about what comes next as what the business has already achieved.

“We are incredibly proud of the awards, but ultimately they are a reflection of the people behind Col’Cacchio, from our teams and franchise partners to the people developing our products and serving our customers every day. That is the business we will continue to build.”