Describe your organisation.
Craveable Brands is Australia’s largest born and bred Quick-Service Restaurant (QSR) business.
Our story began in 1972 when Peter Kallis opened his first Red Rooster store in Kelmscott, WA. Two years later, the first Chicken Treat store opened in WA. Then, in 1986, Antonio Cerqueira opened his first Oporto in Bondi Beach.
Fast forward to today, and Craveable Brands manages over 600 franchised restaurants across a portfolio of four iconic owned brands – Red Rooster, Oporto, Chicken Treat and Chargrill Charlie’s, which have been some of the fastest growing brands in the sector over the last three years.
What is your main product/service?
We are in the fast food industry specialising in chicken menu items. In fact, we are the number one multi-brand chicken quick-service restaurant business in the country.
We have four iconic brands that appeal across a broad range of customer preferences and occasions.
Red Rooster specialises in roast chicken, fried chicken and breadlines that offer great value and meal options to families and individuals on the go.
Oporto is a contemporary, authentic, Portuguese-inspired restaurant chain offering flame-grilled chicken and burgers full of adventurous flavour.
Chicken Treat, which is almost exclusively based in WA, offers great tasting and indulgent rotisserie and fried chicken as well as breadlines.
And finally, our newest addition to the Craveable family, Chargrill Charlie’s, offers homestyle meals of great quality, including chargrilled chicken, salads, sides and breadlines.
Why is your industry so relevant to franchisees right now?
QSR is an incredibly resilient industry that continues to grow and deliver great returns even during tough economic conditions, as customers increasingly seek value.
Craveable Brands offers a wide range of menu choices, but we specialise in chicken, which, as a category, has outpaced the broader QSR industry.
In fact, we are the number one multi-brand chicken quick service restaurant business in the country – providing franchisees access to a large and loyal client base.
What type of person would ‘fit’ your franchisee profile?
At Craveable Brands, we love franchisees – or franchise partners as we call them – that have a passion for customer service, great food, high standards, and motivating a happy and productive team.
Ultimately, you need to be a team player if you want to succeed as a franchisee. A successful franchised business is one where the franchisee and franchisor are genuinely open to working together.
Of course, being a franchisee isn’t for everyone.
It requires a lot of hard work and dedication, particularly at the start, and you’ll need to understand how to make money and drive great outcomes at the top and bottom line.
Where are your current locations?
Craveable Brands is Australia’s largest born and bred Quick-Service Restaurant (QSR) business.
We have over 600 franchised restaurants across the country, including 212 in New South Wales and the ACT, 148 in Queensland, 129 in Western Australia, 89 in Victoria, 16 in South Australia, four in the NT – and one in New Zealand and Dubai.
What makes you stand out from the competition?
As mentioned, we are in the fast-food industry specialising in chicken menu items. In fact, we are the number one multi-brand chicken quick-service restaurant business in the country.
We are the only major chicken QSR in Australia that owns and operates its brands in this market.
As a protein, chicken outstrips any other type of meat in terms of demand and consumption, even in difficult economic times, when customers are looking for more affordable ways to eat or treat their families.
We have invested heavily in developing great food and ensuring our restaurants and branding have great appeal to our customers across the board.
As Australia’s largest QSR business, we can draw on our collective capability and resources to deliver great deals for our customers and great returns for our franchise partners.
And we continue to grow quickly, with growth focused on the roll-out of new stores, new channels, and new digital and organic opportunities within the business.
How do you look after your franchisees?
We offer a range of first-class support for our franchise partners.
This includes negotiating bulk buying supplier rates, managing leases and property negotiations, providing marketing, IT, legal, operations and HR support, and growing the overall brand’s awareness and loyalty to attract new customers.
We also prepare franchisees with a full induction process and ongoing training on key initiatives and compliance matters so they can learn quickly and know what to do.
What are your plans for 2024?
We are always investing in our brands – whether it be new menu items, new technology, new channels, new stores, or new concepts – 2024 will be a big year for us.
This year alone, we opened 30 new stores. We also bought legendary chicken shop Chargrill Charlie’s in June. Integration has gone very well, and we have plans to roll out Chargrill Charlie’s nationally.
Going forward, we plan to open 40 new stores across our brands annually.
We are investing heavily in app and website technology to drive digital channel sales, with a strong focus on kiosks across the network.
We are currently in the process of rolling out new Point of Sale technology with our franchise partners, which we aim to complete in large part in the next six months.
We are also in the process of implementing a new time and attendance system to support our franchise partners with labour optimisation.
Where do you see the Franchise in the next five years?
We have 600 stores today, and we plan on opening 40 stores a year going forward, which could add 150 plus stores to our network within five years.
So, we will be considerably bigger in five years than we are today, and we are looking for great franchise partners to work with us on this expansion.
We will continue to invest in technology and digital interaction with our customers. This is a growing channel for our business, and international benchmarks suggest there is significantly more upside for customers, franchisees and Craveable Brands still to come.
We also have the appetite to add more brands to our network, particularly after our successful Chargrill Charlie’s acquisition.
What is your advice for those exploring franchise opportunities?
My advice to a prospective franchise partner would be to make sure you understand the level of commitment and time required to run a successful store.
Be realistic about your circumstances, and ask yourself honestly whether you are willing to put yourself out of your comfort zone and develop new skills required to succeed.
Most importantly, ensure you understand the financial commitment you are making and the outcomes you think are achievable.
And finally, look for brands with concepts that are growing and have appeal to a wide customer base in good times and bad.
How do you motivate your franchisees?
I think it’s important that franchisees are self-motivated. This industry is incredibly rewarding, but it is not for the faint-hearted.
Saying that, at Craveable, we pride ourselves on delivering first-class support and mentorship for franchise partners.
We have frequent state meetings throughout the year to share learnings and insights from across the network so our franchise partners can see what has worked and what hasn’t.
Craveable Brands also provides expert feedback and financial and operational benchmarking so franchisees can better understand how their businesses are faring against their peers.
And we provide training and support on key initiatives and compliance matters so franchisees can learn quickly and know what to do.
Why is Craveable Brands the right choice for franchisees?
At Craveable, we are the only major chicken QSR that owns and operates its brands in this market. This makes us nimble, agile and able to work directly with our franchise partners to build our respective businesses.
In each of our brands, we have invested heavily in developing great food and ensuring our restaurants and branding have a loyal following from customers.
And in fact, we have some of the fastest growing brands in Australia, and we continue to grow quickly, with growth focused on the roll-out of new stores, new channels, and new digital and organic opportunities within the business.