Find out how Coolabah landed in Australia's busiest highways
They now have 17 stores across the country.
Coolabah Tree Cafe is a carvery, coffee, and burger business that began in service stations and travel centres. The brand is currently in its growth phase, looking to expand in shopping centre food-court locations and strip shopping sites. The brand also announced that they will soon be establishing their first couple of 'drive-thru' locations within the year.
Below is a Q&A with Andrew Grant, Owner and CEO of Coolabah Tree Café.
QSR Media: Could you tell us how Coolabah started?
Andrew: Coolabah started back in 2001 when we saw an opportunity to expand a premium quality, healthy, fair-priced carvery, coffee and burger business beyond shopping centres and out into Australia’s main service stations and travel centres. Initially we travelled the highways extensively and realised the only food options on the highways was McDonalds, KFC or the old ‘FUEL-FOOD’, un-branded roadhouses.
It was nearly impossible to get a really good coffee, or healthy and hearty meal, in some ‘suspect’ stops with questionable, attention to all the ‘Safe Food Handling practices’ you would expect of a ‘Brand’ chain.
Over the next few years we approached and were approached by all the major fuel companies, who were keen to get our good, high quality offer in their fuel stations. Initially we started in Queensland and a few locations in NSW, before we were approached to take over the two large, high exposure, ‘Boston markets’ restaurants on the F3 between Newcastle and Sydney. What followed was a busy a couple of years of growth with more locations in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
QSR Media: What does your brand offer and to whom does it cater?
Andrew: Although we have some quick, fast food options we aim to be provide a premium quality food offer with great taste, a fair price and in a sit-down restaurant/ diner experience to rival the fast food chains. We are known for our Roast Beef, Pork and Lamb meals and rolls.
We cater to the traveller, the local, the miner, bus groups, families, truckies and everyone in between. We pride ourselves on an award winning coffee and we maintain on-going barista training through our stores. Our ‘Boundary Rider Burger’ is one of our top selling items for those who love a traditional, premium, ‘Big’ burger and is popular with 18- 34 year old males, especially.
All our stores do have dine-in options with meals on plates and coffee in crockery, if that is your request. Our big breakfast options, evening meals, sandwiches, wraps, snack food, milk shakes and other burgers and steak sandwiches, provide something for everyone.
A number of our Coolabah’s are in country towns and fairly remote locations, so we are a major employer, sponsor and supporter in these towns. We pride ourselves on the job opportunities we provide to the locals and are also proud that some of our longest serving staff are in their 60’s and still leading by example with great customer service.
Coolabah openly advertises for mature-aged staff, e.g. ‘grey nomads, to look at doing a travelling/ working holiday whilst working in Coolabah’s across the breadth of Australia.
QSR Media: How has the brand developed since it started?
Andrew: We have developed key, relationships with the fuel companies, landlords, supplier and patrons over the past 12 years.
One of our key drivers over the years has been our willingness to open and operate locations as Company-owned stores under management. This way we were prepared to prove the location before eventually selling onto a new, committed and energetic Franchisee. Of course the GFC managed to slow credit down for both Franchisees and also the number of Company stores we wanted to maintain.
Currently we have 11 Company-owned stores, with approx. 250 staff plus six Franchised locations. As we have expended great care in our site selections, they are high turnover locations, hence the 17 locations translates to a much higher multiple of outlets if compared against many other brands. The old saying, quality and not quantity!
The 2012 launch of ‘Club Coolabah’ Loyalty club has attracted almost 8,000 members and provides valuable information on the travelling and key product consumptions by our members across the network.
QSR Media: What’s special about your brand’s range of products?
Andrew: We source healthy, wholesome, and quality ingredients, from well respected, HACCP approved suppliers. A great coffee. Something for everyone.
QSR Media: What can we expect from Coolabah this year?
Andrew: We are firmly in a growth-phase, with a number of ‘developer-stalled projects’ about to come on-line in key travel Centre locations across Australia. We are just as comfortable trading next to the major fast food brands in Travel Centres, as we are at taking on a stand-alone location in a Service Station or a strip shopping location. We also keep an eye on shopping centre food-court locations and strip shopping sites, as two of our existing Coolabahs, currently operate in these non-servo locations.
Coolabah also does a ‘Coolabah Express’ which is a kiosk model currently operating near Brisbane Airport. We have plans to roll-out our first couple of ‘Drive-thru’ locations this year and believe this will open the door to many similar sites.
We are also confident of doubling our number of Franchised stores in the coming 12 months as we knuckle down for an exciting period.
