Learn more about how Lord of the Fries is tapping into the trends of consumer food awareness
QSR Media sits down with Mark Koronczyk, Co-Founder of Lord of the Fries, to discuss how the brand is capitalising on the increasing awareness of consumers regarding the ingredients in their food. .
QSR Media: Where do you see the opportunities in the QSR segment?
Lord of the Fries: Since Lord of the Fries was established in 2005, the QSR industry and its opportunities have changed significantly. The biggest opportunity that we have capitalised on is delivering food that people love, like fries, while providing high quality, ethically sourced products. Now that consumers are asking questions about ingredients and provenance, there are greater opportunities for us to showcase foods that aren’t derived from animal products. We aim to increase awareness of the chemicals, preservatives and other nasties in some products on the market so our customers are able to make conscious choices when they choose to dine out.
QSR Media: What are your customers asking for?
Lord of the Fries: Lord of the Fries customers want to know that our potatoes are grown locally and all our products are sourced from Australia; that our food doesn’t contain preservatives and chemicals.
As we said above, there’s greater awareness of what’s going into the products people eat, and people are looking for and asking questions about food that’s respectful of animals and has less of an environmental impact.
QSR Media: What’s new at LOTF?
Lord of the Fries: There’s always something new at LOTF! In the past 12 months we have redesigned our menu; making it more aesthetically pleasing, adding food photography, changing the layout, look and feel. As a part of this, we’ve streamlined our offering and made some permanent additions to the menu, including the Poutine Burger – a French Canadian favourite transformed into a delicious vegetarian burger for our fry-loving customers.
With our expansion and changes to the menu we’ve also been able to make the breakfast offering more widely available at high traffic stores like Chapel Street (Windsor, VIC) and Central Station (Sydney, NSW). The breakfast bounty and coffee offering has given us additional appeal to our vegetarian audience, but is also a high quality alternative to other fast options available.
We have also recently changed all our sauces to be vegan (we cut out the egg) to align with our sustainable practices.
Finally, we have exciting news of a new store opening in Perth by the end of 2015 and in Parramatta, NSW by early 2016. Our lips are sealed on exact dates and locations right now, but keep your eyes peeled and your taste buds at the ready for all opening information as it is confirmed.
QSR Media: Any other comments?
Lord of the Fries: Lord of the Fries is planning on growing its business through smart, focused franchising.
We are inundated with franchise requests from around the globe and are always meeting with prospective franchisees. Our aim has always been to grow the business steadily and our aim is to have all our franchisees and company owned stores experiencing good growth. We’re very proud we have been able to achieve this thus far and plan to continue our profitable relationships in future.
Going forward we will be expanding to more states in Australia, as well as New Zealand and India, which will be a great step forward for the business.
