Find out how Soul Origin is aiming to boost its brand presence in 2016
QSR Media got a chance to talk with the folks at Soul Origin about their brand's recent successes, its healthy food offerings, and the brand's strategic direction.
Soul Origin offers a wide range of healthy breakfast and lunch options, made fresh daily in-store. Its menu includes wraps, sandwiches, salads and olive oil paninis. The brand aims to re-think the public's perception of fast food through its selection of salads and sandwiches, seasonal soups and fruit salads, along with coffee and sweets.
QSR Media: What’s new at Soul Origin?
Soul Origin: 2016 is going to be a very busy year at Soul Origin. We have built the most amazing support team over the last six months with the view to achieving great things in 2016. The last two years has seen Soul Origin achieved 120% growth and we are looking to replicate that this year. At Soul Origin we have also commissioned a R&D Chef to develop and implement a new range with an eye on Origin of product and sustainability. This new range will use produce that is often found in the top restaurants around Australia.
As we look to refresh our product range there is also a keen eye on expanding aggressively our network in Queensland with a large number of sites in the pipeline to open throughout the year. There is also the view to expand into new markets with Victoria and Western Australia high on the priority list, at this stage numerous commitments to leases have been made by Soul Origin in these markets please watch this space for more news.
QSR Media: What are your customers asking for?
Soul Origin: All customers are well educated when it comes to healthy eating this is on the back of the proliferation of shows such as Master Chef which have raised the bar for all competing in the QSR space. We set high standards and expectations at Soul Origin. Freshness and big flavours are at the top of the list as far their expectations. Combining with the mantra of ‘Eating Mindfully’ the R&D chef we have engaged understands the Australian palate and is developing a range of new products that will excite and surprise, not only our current Soul Origin customers, however we believe, it will entice a whole new audience to our stores. Variety is the spice of life and at Soul Origin we hope to offer an unsurpassed product range the likes the QSR market has never seen.
QSR Media: How do you see the health food sector in the coming years? What are the challenges?
Soul Origin: This sector is continuing to evolve and grow. With the old QSR brands trying to encroach on this space, the challenges never stop coming. An educated customer base, who understand that Soul Origin’s product is made fresh daily. With the growth in obesity in the community we all struggle to eat mindfully on a day-to-day basis. At Soul Origin will continue to offer people a choice to do so, based on a huge variety, our stores have over 20 salads on offer on a daily basis with a similar range of bread based items as well.
The challenges are the emergence of “dude food” and other indulgences, leading the way is Australia’s obsession with burgers, it’s important for brands such as ours not to lose focus on our core product, which is fresh healthy food delivered fast. We know that a fresh salad or panini might not be as sexy as a quadruple bacon cheeseburger, but the health food sector is still an extremely important option for Australians focused on eating fresh and staying fit. We anticipate that a number of brands in the health food sector will try to make their products more appealing to the burger and donut-loving consumer, blurring their core offerings in an attempt to satisfy everyone. At Soul Origin, we know what were great at and we know our customers love what we do and how we do it. Our focus will be dedicated to continually providing healthy fresh food delivered fast with the view to eating mindfully.
QSR Media: What can you say to the market about the direction your brand is strategically headed?
Soul Origin: 2016 is a year we put our best foot forward to the Australian public. We will have stores across five states and territories and will be the perfect time to start increasing our brand presence. Strategically we’re looking to ensure our systems are able to keep up with our popularity and demand across Australia. With that we are also keen to ensure that our product range is evolving with the tastes and preferences of our customers. On the back of our hugely successful activation in Martin Place, where we fed over 2000 people and more than doubled our Instagram following we are looking to have more fun with our brand and we plan to execute more live, high exposure activations so that all Australians across the country are able to experience the true nature of Soul Origin which is people, friends and family not forgetting the most important component which is fun.
