How Foodco’s CEO Richard Goodman took the top floor from the shop floor

With 20 years of experience, Richard shares his thoughts on emerging industry trends.

After focusing on working with Foodco’s team and franchisees on emerging in a post-COVID world, CEO Richard Goodman is now setting his sights on various industry trends like emerging Daypart opportunities, AI, and international growth for Foodco’s various QSR brands and retail outfits.

Richard, who traces his roots in retail, first started as a store manager at David Jones in 2004. From there, he moved up the corporate ladder becoming a Regional Manager in 2012 and the Commercial Planning & Communications Manager in 2016. He was also Managing Director of duty-free retailer Heinemann Australia in 2018 before becoming the CEO of Foodco in January last year.

“It’s been really exciting. Having not worked predominantly in food and franchising predominantly in my career, it has been a big learning curve to understand the mechanics of how these businesses work. We have many highlights and many achievements but also many learnings over the past 12 months as we back out of the final stages of the significant impact that COVID has had on our business,” Richard said in a quick catch-up interview with QSR Media.

Giving a little more background on his switch from being the managing director of Heinemann Australia Pty Ltd, Richard said one of his main challenges was learning all about the legal requirements to keep the business compliant with Australia’s laws.

“Franchising in Australia is a very regulated market. There are a number of legal requirements that are absolutely necessary to ensure that we are compliant as a business. That overwhelmingly was the biggest learning to take on board,” Richard said.

Another clear difference is that when working in a traditional retail store as a leader, you have team members you are directly responsible for. However, as the CEO of Foodco, he doesn’t have to handle the direct day-to-day operations but just ensures that franchisees are all working using the specific template for each of their brands.

Emerging trends and industry shifts

With more than a year under his belt in working with the food and franchise industry, Richard shared some of his thoughts on the latest trends in Australia.

“First and foremost I have to acknowledge the continued emerging shift from pure play bricks and mortar retailing to online and the impact that has on our franchise network can track customer traffic in our core locations, which are in shopping centres,” Richard said.

Richard said they are also looking at the possibilities of AI and if it could benefit efficiencies not just for franchisors but for their franchisees. He is also seeing a surge of around 30% to 50% increase in the cost of brick-and-mortar concepts compared to four years ago.

“We're looking at our current concept and how we can continue to evolve it. And right sizing that cost for franchisees to build the same thing is somewhere in the north of 30% to 50% more expensive than what it was four years ago,” Richard said.

Expansion and future plans

Foodco’s main quick-service restaurant brands are Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue. For Muffin Break they have nearly 153 stores in Australia, and nearly 100 Jamaica Blue coffee shops.

Foodco is also ramping up in increasing its international stores. Most recently, it opened its first Jamaica Blue cafe in Qatar, the second market the cafe chain entered in the Middle East.

“There are two really important ingredients with expansion: number one is an amazing location. And number two is a fantastic franchise partner. When those two marry together, we see an opportunity. But we also need to be conscious that growth can only come with finding those two ingredients together,” Richard said.