Chicken Treat’s ‘hyperlocal’ strategy to conquer the east coast

The chicken brand from Western Australia is starting by opening 9 restaurants in Sydney.

Famously known in Western Australia, Chicken Treat has now set its sight on conquering the east coast and it’s starting with opening nine restaurants in Sydney by 2023.

The restaurant has been making bold steps to ensure they remain competitive in Sydney’s chicken market, even going as far as testing its menu options to local chicken lovers as well as taking some inspiration from local and independent fast casual restaurants in the area. 

This is part of the chicken brand’s ‘hyperlocal’ approach across different media where it invested in digital, social, and even traditional channels so that local communities get to know their taste.

To know more about Chicken Treat’s inspiration and its push towards Sydney’s market, QSR Media talked to Chicken Treat CEO Mimma Battista.

QSR Media: Tell us about Chicken Treat. How did it first start?

Mimma: Chicken Treat has been proudly serving West Australians since 1976. Founded by Frank Romano, the brand entered the market as a barbeque/rotisserie chicken fast food operation. Today, the brand has a cult-like following in WA, serving up slow-cooked rotisserie chicken (a nod to its heritage), crunchified fried chicken, breast fillet burgers and innovative sides in fresh effervescent store environments.

 
With your first entry in Sydney, what market challenges do you think you have to face? How will you try to tackle this?

Selecting the right store locations and ensuring we are developing brand awareness. We have taken our time to work with market experts to select visible, accessible locations which offer strong trade across all of our dayparts and also allow for pickup and delivery. This allows our local Franchise Partners to focus on the customer experience by offering a consistent, fun, and memorable food and brand experience. We've opted for a hyperlocal approach across media investing in digital, social, out-of-home and traditional channels so we can be known for chicken in our local communities.

You said you faced some delays in your expansion plans. From your previous plans, what changes have you made to adapt to the current market?

COVID lockdowns of 2021 assisted us to re-evaluate our new market opening strategies – you could say it made us slow down initially, to speed up post-lockdown, enabling us to build a pipeline of new site locations, map out our store footprint and pre-order and warehouse equipment to power our new stores. The delays also gave us the opportunity to develop well-considered franchise recruitment marketing plans to attract high-performing Franchise operators.

Could you tell us a bit more about your expansion plans? What are your targets? How many stores, the expected percentage of the market are you capturing?

We have an ambitious plan to open 33 stores around the country by the end of FY25. In fact by June 2023, Chicken Treat will add another 9 stores in locations across Australia. Here’s a fun fact – Chicken Treat has opened 3 stores in the last 5 weeks – 2 in Sydney and 1 in Western Australia. Our goal is to serve up amazing chicken not just in WA but across the country in NSW and Australia’s Capital, Canberra!

How do you want your brand to be known in Sydney?

The ultimate, lighthearted, fun chicken destination! We've been through a significant transformation over the past few years, from new store designs to updating our core menu, and launching many new products which offer something unique in taste and quality compared with other QSR restaurants, so we would just encourage everyone to come and try our menu in our new vibrant stores.

What market trends will you leverage for your entry into the Sydney market?

Sydney offers so many eating options and bold influences of international flavours on burgers, fried chicken, and sides. We took inspiration from the food and brand experiences offered by some of the local, independent, and fast-casual restaurants. We worked with our construction and design team to dial up our brand experience and be a bit more unapologetic, fun, and unforgettable. We also reviewed our menu options with local chicken lovers which really helped to make some changes to how we land in Sydney and beyond.

How do you see Chicken Treat five years from now? What are some of your plans?

A memorable, iconic Australian chicken brand. We will celebrate our 50th year over this time and the brand has a rich heritage so we want to continue to contemporise and innovate with unique flavours and experiences.