A food truck owner from Mandalay in Cape Town is seeking legal advice after the well known Burger franchise, RocoMamas, allegedly used bullying tactics against him to change the name of one of his burgers.
It is said that chef and owner of Rack n Grill, Muammer Kasu received a letter from RocoMamas chief executive, Anton Geldenhuys, claiming the franchise was the registered owner of the “Smashburger” in South Africa.
As reported by IOL, Kasu feels bullied. The food truck owner stated that RocoMamas wants him to change the two-worded “Smash Burger”, while they have only trademarked “Smashburger” which is one word. Though he understands the similarity, according to their certificate they cannot use the two words separately. However, they are still trying to get him to change his burger name.
Meanwhile, former Cape Times and Cape Argus editor, Gasant Abarder tweeted in support of the entrepreneur saying:
“RoccoMamas SA have just lost a customer, you corporate bullies. Picking on a food truck owner! Sickening! Enjoy the publicity.”
I use to think you guys were cool, @rocomamas. But after seeing your bullying tactics against an entrepreneur @RacknGrill, you can miss me with your smash burger or whatever it is called. You’ll never see me and my family again. pic.twitter.com/YmTbpeSgy3
— Gasant Abarder (@GasantAbarder) April 16, 2021
Abarder explained to Cape Town Etc, that this is a massive PR fail by a major corporation linked to giant chains like Spur and other such brands.
“All they’ve done is gain bad publicity and give priceless marketing and publicity to a relatively unknown small business owner who doesn’t have the resources to compete with them,” Arbader said.
Abarder added that if RoccoMamas are into bullying, then a backfire like this one is what they deserve.
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