Roll’d slows expansion despite double-digit growth
The brand is turning its focus to profitability and efficiency.
Roll'd has deliberately slowed its franchise and store expansion to strengthen its systems, processes, and support structure despite delivering 12.04% comparable growth in FY26.
Jarrod Montigue, group operations manager for Australia and New Zealand at Roll’d, told QSR Media Australia that the focus now is ensuring sales growth translates into stronger store-level and franchisee profitability, particularly as labour, food, and construction costs continue to rise.
QSR Media: In the last 12 months, what's your biggest success as a QSR leader?
Montigue: My biggest achievements include leading our franchise partners to achieve another year of double-digit comparable growth, increasing from 10.02% in FY25 to 12.04% in FY26. [I] also successfully launched the Roll’d brand internationally and explored opportunities beyond traditional QSR revenue streams to introduce new revenue opportunities for our Roll’d franchise partners. I was also named a finalist for Franchise Manager of the Year at the National Franchise Council of Australia Annual Awards. Most recently, I was recognised with an internal promotion to General Manager – Franchising for Roll’d globally.
In your view, what are your top 3 pressing challenges or issues that you believe QSR brand leaders should discuss today?
There is growing pressure on margins as the cost of doing business increases, particularly due to rising labour costs, cost of goods, and construction costs. At the same time, AI is influencing the QSR business. The key question is whether we are actually growing profitably or simply buying growth.
Where are you allocating the bulk of your investment in 2027, and what specific metric will determine whether that investment has succeeded?
We are allocating the majority of our investment in building out people capability within our Support Office to enable growth. Key growth and revenue targets will be the ultimate measure for us over the next 12 months.
Which metric looks healthy on the surface but actually worries you?
The obvious one for me is sales growth performance not translating to store and profitability growth. These two areas will be a big focus for us through FY27. We are currently conducting an extensive review of our operating model to look at ways of making us more efficient and productive to reduce labour costs. Also an extensive review of supply chain and construction costs.
A recent study found that more than 80% of Australians eat fast food. What customer trends have you identified, and how have you leveraged those insights to develop new products, services, or experiences?
A key one for us is to create more brand awareness and be a louder voice in the QSR space, to shout about our amazing product offering, which is right on trend. Healthy, fast, fresh food is what today's QSR customer is looking for.
Looking ahead, what's the biggest trade-off you are currently making or planning—price vs. margin, speed vs. quality, growth vs. consistency, etc.—and why do you think it works well for your brand?
The biggest trade-off that we have deliberately slowed has been our franchise and store growth in recent years. This has been deliberate to enable the build-out of additional systems, structure, and processes to better support our network. This has worked exceptionally well, allowing our business to stabilise, supporting franchise profitability improvement through better operational focus, and allowing our Support Office to recruit the right calibre of people to take our business forward.
