Mr Burger and its growing fleet of food trucks
Succeeding in the area of non-traditional quick service concepts.
Mr Burger started out as just a food truck, recounts Maleik Edwards, the brand's General Manager. Inspired by the American travels of founders Daragh Kan and Myles Munro, the duo was impressed at the different ways American customers could access some of the best burgers in an experiential setting. They then took the experience home to Australia and decided to open a food truck business.
"The mobile nature of the Food Truck meant that a huge variety of customers could access the product, in a wide variety of different areas," explained Edwards. "[It] meant that the product could be at a music festival one day, outside your office the next and then finally at your favourite Friday night venues."
However, the size of the food truck was limited so the brand decided to focus on a small number of products and deliver quality burgers. This formula proved successful and created a demand for Mr Burger in Melbourne (being voted as Melbourne's Best New Food Truck by The Age in 2012), two years and a fleet of food trucks later, they have began looking into brick and mortar locations.
"After the rapid growth of Mr Burger and the unprecedented demand for the product, we decided we would look to introduce bricks and mortar stores in areas where Food Truck permits were not available, such as our first store at Little Bourke Street then in high street locations such as Chapel Street and Brunswick Street. These areas did not allow food truck permits in the traditional sense, which are still limited in their availability in Melbourne and required us to have bricks and mortar stores to meet customer demand for specific locations," he noted.
The transition was not difficult at all, Edwards shared. "As the truck had limited space and a reduced menu, translating this into the stores was very easy, as the scaleable nature of the truck format could be increased in size in the stores, without requiring significantly more staff or equipment."
He describes Mr Burger as a brand which aims to be accessible, honest and relaxed, while also having a sense of humour. "We aim to be available to a wide variety of customers in a wide variety of areas, through both Food Trucks, stores and pop-ups. Our audience ranges from inner-city workers, to music festival attendees, to private events and functions"
GROWING THE TRUCK FLEET
This year, Edwards shared that the brand's goal is to further increase their availability and presence in Melbourne, expanding its truck fleet and focusing on expanding into the Eastern suburbs.
In addition, the brand hopes to open its new Food Truck park in Northcote, which will have a roster of regularly rotating food trucks in a relaxed beer garden environment.
For now, all Mr Burger stores and rucks are entirely company-owned and still owned by the original founding partners of the brand, from 2012. However, Edwards noted that the brand is currently assessing its franchise options.
He did emphasized though that their main focus is on ensuring the quality and standard of its products, adding, "we would only move into franchising once we are comfortable that we can maintain the quality of our burgers and existing high standards of presentation."
