Durban - It was too early to determine the value of the damage caused by the fire at Steers Holdings' Midrand warehouse, Kevin Hedderwick, the chief operating officer of franchising, said yesterday.

The cause of the fire is not yet known. But Hedderwick said the value of the damage would be known in the next couple of weeks once the assessors had completed their business.

"We have met our commitment to stakeholders that a warehouse would be fully operational within 24 hours and the damaged warehouse was fully insured, so there will be no losses in terms of revenue income," he said.

The damaged 400m2 warehouse, which housed up to 900 individual line items, had been replaced by a bigger warehouse across the road, he said.

The company's share price, which showed an overreaction on Wednesday, remained stable at R1.50 yesterday. In Wednesday's trade 623 599 shares were traded, a figure well above Steers' daily average of 5 000 shares.

Lavan Gopaul, a portfolio manager at BP Bernstein, said it looked as if investors believed that Wednesday's 7.4 percent drop was sufficient punishment for the loss of the warehouse.

The market was still looking for definite information on the financial impact of the fire, Gopaul said  
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Yesterday's thin trade could also be explained by the fact that most investors focused on the news that the SA Reserve Bank cut interest rate cuts, he said.

Steers Holdings issued a statement saying the company's butchery and bakery delivered to franchisees in accordance with delivery schedules.

Paris Papageorgiou, the group financial director, said: "We have obtained access to production facilities and are in the process of cleaning the premises, after which production will start this afternoon [Thursday]. Delivery of sauces and spices to the franchise network will not be affected.

"Although the telecommunications network is not fully operational, our administration department is functioning."

Steers Holdings, which is the biggest player in the Southern African region's R6 billion fast food market, is represented by Steers, Debonairs Pizza, Fishaways and Church's Chicken brands.

The group now has more than 532 outlets and recently acquired Creative Coffee Franchise System. The news of the fire came almost a month after it reported a 51 percent rise in attributable profit to R16.2 million for the year to February, because of better brand positioning.